The Secrets We Keep
by KrRcksMySx
Summary: After defeating the Mother F**r and his crew of Toxic Mega C**ts, Mindy and Dave go separate ways. Dave has to face NYC on his own, without his father or Hit Girl, and Mindy goes into hiding in the Deep South to evade the NYPD. What does life hold for Dave's future, and can Mindy stop being Hit Girl long enough to keep from blowing her cover?
1. Chapter 1

I was kind of inspired by Makokam's Precocious Crush to make this story, but I'm following more the movie universe than the comics so Mindy is 15 and this is set right after the end of the second movie. But if you've read his stories some things ought to feel familiar. I take no claim on the characters unless I specify them :)

* * *

I had a lot of time to think about that last moment I shared with Dave. An entire two-day trip on the back of my purple Ducati, to be exact. And during the countless gas stops, bathroom breaks, and the night spent in a shitty motel on the side of the highway, I kept running the memory over and over again in my mind like a CD skipping over the same part of the song over and over again.

Me leaning over, him standing still, our lips meeting, softly caressing, me pulling away, him leaning in after me, me telling him to be nice or I'd rip his asshole through his mouth…It was a good first kiss, at least I think it was, it's not like I have any other kiss to compare it to or any girlfriends to talk to about it.

But I'm guessing all that's about to change, due to that two-day road trip. I was headed to Cooper Texas, the little town whose water tower actually says "Howdy Y'all" on it. Of course after seeing said water tower, I was tempted to face the NYPD rather than live in a town that uses two southern colloquialisms in its greeting. But I fought the urge to make a 180 and pushed onward.

I found a secluded area to park my bike and covered it up with a tarp before getting into town, since I didn't want anyone to spot it and make the connection between me and Hit Girl. After all, the whole point of me being in this god forsaken town was to avoid suspicion and lay low, and a custom purple Ducati isn't exactly the epitome of stealth.

This left me with a duffel bag to lug into town on foot. So I just hiked it up on my shoulder and walked on. I had a chance to see the town as I made my way through, and my short tour didn't make me feel much better. Evidentially the "Howdy Y'all" was a warning to potential visitors to be prepared for cowboy boots, Stetsons, and every single person you pass by, to smile and say hello to you. Which in New York City all of those things are pretty much unheard of.

I started to feel a bit paranoid but by then I was close enough to my destination to shrug it off. 1367 Brookview Trail: the suburban home of Marcus' cousin, Will Travis, and my new home away from home. Both Marcus and I knew I couldn't stay in New York with the Police on my ass, but thankfully Marcus had worked out an agreement with a cousin of his he was close to but didn't have his last name so it would be harder to trace a connection between us.

Of course no one in the Travis family knew I was Hit Girl, Marcus and I knew it would be best to keep that between us. As far as the Travis family knew, Marcus was worried about the recent crime with Chris "Fucking" D'Amico and wanted me out of the city for a safer slower life in a small town. And I like that story just fine. The way daddy taught me: Just Dave and Marcus knowing my alter ego was two, too many.

I'm sitting here in my new bedroom, my few possessions already put away, scanning through a sniper rifle's manual, completely stuffed from dinner. Obviously I'm going to have to work my ass off to stay in shape while living here, cause I'm pretty sure Jennie (Will's wife) thinks she's related to Paula Deen. Although it was so good, I doubt I'll be complaining.

I couldn't stand to leave home without taking some basic weapons with me, it just seemed wrong, so I have hidden several guns as well as bullets, knives, and a couple grenades around my room. I wanted so badly to bring my wig and costume, but I knew I couldn't risk being Hit Girl in Cooper Texas, so I didn't bother bringing them thus avoiding temptation. It was a sad parting just the same.

I can't stand to look at diagrams of this rifle anymore, in fact I should probably just get rid of the manual, considering I don't even have that gun here with me. But most of all, because I have to leave Hit Girl behind. I knew I couldn't bring her here with me, I can't risk blowing my cover, and not just for my sake, but for Marcus and now his family too. But it's not going to be easy.

I had such a hard time not being her with Marcus, someone I actually knew and cared about, let alone some loose relatives of his. But this isn't Dallas, the population here is under 25,000. Surely the worst crime in a town that greets visitors with "Howdy Y'all" is going to be public intoxication and maybe some "indecent exposure" by the teens after a football game.

If the cops here can't handle that, maybe Hit Girl should resurface to give some lessons.

I just need to stop thinking about it. But Hit Girl is pretty much the only memories I have. Not to mention the only real friend I've ever had was Dave and I can't stop thinking about him, which may be due to the fact that he's a good friend and we have some pretty damn awesome memories together or because of that kiss I can't stop thinking about.

I sighed and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. God I'm not looking forward to school.

* * *

I have three months left of school. Then I'll graduate. And then what? Before Kick Ass I'd always assumed that college was the next step. Now? I have no idea what I'm going to do. Today is the first day that I've spent back in my own home since dad…

Well, since Chris D'Amico made the worst mistake of his life, anyway.

But now I have a house all to myself. Weirdly this house has been in my family for a long time, so I actually inherited a house that's already paid for. But I've still gotta pay bills. I never really knew how much just living in a house cost, till now. I took it for granted when dad yelled at me for taking such long showers when the "moment" struck me. I took a lot of things about my dad for granted.

But I remember feeling that way after mom died too, and I got through that, so I know what to expect this time and I'll make it through this. Thank god Marty got into NYU, so he'll stick around for moral support. Todd on the other hand got a scholarship to some school way over in Michigan, so our days are numbered. But we do have one whole summer together, plus the last three months of school, to make the most of it.

It's kind of weird ending school and having my friends go their separate ways. I know a lot of my classmates, Marty and Todd included, feel like they're really growing up for the first time, like their real adults now. But I passed that a few years back. If I had to pin point it, I'd say it was the night Hit Girl saved my life and unfortunately lost her dad's.

Honestly I can't believe Mindy's actually gone, I keep thinking I'm going to run into her some night and she'll surprise me spewing explicative's in the way only she can do. But I know Mindy's smart, and the NYPD are not happy with her, so the best thing for her to do is to lay low.

Shit, I have to lay low. Thank god for the time Mindy spent coaching me, cause I've had to start being way more stealthy since what happened at the warehouse. Thankfully Mindy left me her safe house, that way I won't have any evidence at home this time of my crime fighting alter ego.

Just last night I was "fishing" and the two guys I started fighting had about three, or maybe it was four, buddies show up towards the end and that was just too much for me all by myself. I was almost relieved when the sounds of the police sirens started blaring and I could see the flashing lights approaching. But my relief immediately turned to fear when I remembered that we were no longer on the same team. Especially since what happened to my dad happened on their watch.

I suppose I kind of understand Mindy's personal vendetta against the D'Amicos now. Not that I'm gonna start some crazed scheme to kill cops or anything. I know it was really Chris' fault. But at least I don't have to worry about him anymore.

Of course thinking about that just brings up the image of Chris being torn apart in that bloody shark tank, and that's not something I like hanging around either. But I do feel kind of proud, I doubt anything Mindy ever does will ever be as badass like dismemberment by a shark, try as she may, and I know she will.

The ghosts of my parents memories are imbedded in this home though. Just sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast made those horrible crushing feelings of remorse and guilt come crawling up my spine.

It's that damn bee on the cereal box. I stared at it for a while remembering past conversations and I had to squelch those feelings the quickest way I knew how.

"Mother fucking, smug ass, Bee!" I screamed, grabbing the box in both hands and crushing it with my fingers before throwing across the room smacking it against the refrigerator, only to follow and beat the shit out of it.

So now I'm picking up fifty thousand pellets of cereal off the kitchen floor and throwing away a mutilated cereal box, muttering to myself. Which is good progress.

I don't know if I believe in the seven stages of grief or anything, but anger is usually a good sign, at least I'm feeling something other than insurmountable sadness. But of course this doesn't mean I wont feel that again. Which is kind of the reason I don't really believe in the seven stages of grief. Said model makes it appear as though once you reach the next stage the last stage is over, and in my experience, it works more like a hamster wheel that spins around so fast on all different levels like sadness, anger, bargaining and so on until you just realize that no matter what your feeling, that person isn't coming back and you will never have another moment with them.

At least right now my hamster is too lazy to really get that wheel going.

* * *

So if you've read Makokam's Precocious Crush, Marcus' family should sound familiar. But I changed their names and you should see some other changes as the story progresses, but when I originally came up with the idea in my head I imagined that Mindy had to go hide with Marcus' family at the end of the second movie. And I imagined it in the south so that interesting things may happen to Mindy.

Also I apologize if this makes Dave seem too angsty or flat, I am a girl after all, so I have a hard time getting in a guys mind. Plus most of my story originally revolved around Mindy but I felt weird leaving him out.


	2. Chapter 2

When I came downstairs for breakfast this morning Jennie was rushing around the kitchen like a crazy woman. I could hear her yelling before I even descended the staircase, telling her son, Nick, to 'make sure he brushed his teeth this morning.' And I wrinkled my nose at the thought of someone forgetting to do such a basic necessity.

Jennie must have eyes in the back of her head since before she had even turned to face me she told me, "You'd be surprised how often he wouldn't if I didn't tell him to do it." I gave what I hoped was a supportive smile in return, but she'd already turned back to her task, slapping mayonnaise on a slice of bread. "Thank god Marcus sent us a teen girl and not another 11 year old boy." She added.

This was when Kim came in a asked me what I liked to eat for breakfast. Kim seemed nice enough. I'd actually met her before, well, I'd met all of the Travis family before back when daddy was still in prison and I'd been living with Marcus. I think there was some family reunion we went to, but I can hardly remember since I was so little then. But I do remember Kim. She was the same age as me and I think we played on a swing set or something. I remember liking her though, and wanting to spend more time with her.

Now, of course, I doubt Kim and I will be playing on swing sets. I shudder at the thoughts of things that Kim would want to be doing with me: probably talk about celebrities and get drunk at keg parties, just like the girls back in New York wanted to do. I just hope I can stomach doing such menial activities long enough for the whole Hit Girl thing to blow over so I can go back to my beloved NYC.

"Um, I'm fine with cereal or whatever." I replied, trying to be nice, but still non-committal. I don't want to seem picky or ungrateful, after all, I know this living arrangement was pretty sudden and I'm sure the Travis family would rather not have some strange girl take up space in their home, eating all their food.

I honestly didn't know a lot about the whole ordeal, but evidentially Marcus and Will were super close as kids and as soon as I moved in with Marcus after daddy died, Marcus had talked about moving me here to stay with Will for a while just to get me away from those negative memories. Of course I found out all of that at dinner last night, the only thing I'd known while on my way over here was that Marcus had some relatives I could stay with while hiding out.

I started eating the generic brand coco puffs Kim handed me and she started asking me stuff about my life, things I was going to have to make up. I mean it's not like I can answer her: "So what kinds of stuff are you into, girl? I mean, like, what do you do for fun up in the big apple?" by telling her the truth.

Yeah, you know, I like going out after midnight and tracking down pedophiles to punish and dismember, but other times I'm just cool with kicking the ass of a petty thief in a dark alley and cutting off his hand when he tries to stab back at me.

Nope. So instead I wracked my brain trying to come up with answers that were both reasonable for a teenage girl and still something I'd be okay with pretending to be into while staying in Texas' armpit.

"I, uh, I like video games." I said but instantly regretted when the look on Kim's face told me that was clearly not something regular teenage girls like. Or at least not something Kim and her group of friends are into. But Nick sure liked that answer.

"Really? That's super cool, I can't wait for the new Assassin's Creed to come out." He said as he slid into the chair next to me, pouring cereal into his own bowl. I smiled and mentally agreed but Kim quipped back before I could tell him I felt the same.

"Oh my god, Nick, that game is so weird. I'm sure Mindy is excited for the new Kingdom Hearts or likes the Wii stuff, not your weird war, fighting games." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, yeah. Totally." I replied, nodding in what I hoped looked like enthusiasm.

"Whatever." Was all Nick said back, more muttering to himself than anything.

Kim turned back to me, "So, like what else are you into?" She asked.

I tried to think harder this time before answering. What's something girly enough to be normal, but not something I'd have to slit my wrists over if forced to participate in? Music? Well, that's pretty vague. Everyone likes music, right? TV, movies, Internet?

"I don't know, just the usual I guess." I said, trying to buy for time while coming up with a good answer. But Jennie interrupted before I had the chance to elaborate.

"Okay, let's get going." She said handing us each a small brown paper bag and pushing us towards the front door. "You don't want Mindy to be late on her first day." She smiled at me and I grabbed my pink backpack, realizing she was ushering us on to school.

I followed Kim outside and down the street, still holding on to the small brown paper bag. I opened it up and looked inquisitively inside: one of the sandwiches Jennie had been making, a water bottle, a container of what looked like jello, plus a spoon wrapped in a napkin were inside. I raised my eyebrows in realization. Lunch.

Kim asked me what was wrong. "What's up? You not like what she put in? What she put in today anyway?" She asked as she opened up her bag and looked inside. She scrunched up her nose and sighed. "Not so bad. What are you used to?"

"Oh, actually we just get lunch at school." I replied as I stuffed the lunch into my backpack. I'd never had a homemade lunch bag before. We came to an intersection and I stopped at the stop sign. Kim however, walked on. But only got so far before realizing I wasn't beside her anymore.

She turned around. "What's wrong?"

I blinked. "Uh, aren't we going to wait for the bus?" I asked her.

Kim laughed. "Mindy, the only people that take the bus are, like, the disabled kids. Everyone walks, unless you have a car, then you get to show off by driving to school." She said.

Oh. Well fuck. I can tell this school day is going to go well. I haven't even got there yet and I've fucked up twice. God, I prefer water boarding to this inquisitive bullshit.

* * *

Well, I have a job. It's pretty much the least glamorous job you could have, but at least I've got an income now. I should be working at a newspaper, being a superhero and all. Both Spiderman and Superman did. But Kick Ass is a pizza delivery boy. If only the writers of my comic series knew. I think they have me working part time at some NYC tourist spot.

Since Marty and Todd found out about me being Kick Ass they've really gotten into the Kick Ass comics, but I just can't bring myself to read them. It's just kind of weird to me. But Marty and Todd are always making remarks when I do stuff, like, "You know in the comics, Kick Ass did this, or, Kick Ass did that…" It's actually starting to get annoying.

But at least the Red Mist comics are gone. In fact, Todd was just telling me the other day that the new Kick Ass comic had the Mother Fucker in it. Not that it really matters. Both Red Mist and the Mother Fucker are gone in real life and the less I think about either the better.

But being a pizza delivery guy isn't so bad either, at least from a superhero perspective. I get to drive all over town, finding the shortcuts and quickest routes. And I get to meet lots of interesting people. Just last week I had a delivery that tipped me off on a popular spot for purse snatching. I've already put three guys behind bars just from that same spot.

And my coworkers aren't bad either. There's Brad, who's pretty cool, we had a conversation yesterday about the latest Superman movie. And my manager's nice too, not to mention gorgeous. So just chilling in the store watching her working the cash register is not time wasted.

Of course between this job, school, and Kick Ass stuff, this leaves hardly any time with Todd and Marty. Especially since Todd and Marty have stopped doing superhero stuff. The fight at the warehouse kind of freaked Todd out and Marty's convinced he's gonna get arrested if he goes out as Battle Guy. So that's not a time we can spend together anymore.

But I've only got two more months left of school now so that part will be over soon, but not soon enough. I hadn't really had time to get senioritis with the Mother Fucker going around killing cops and everything, but now that it's over, senioritis has set in. I'm just so over school. And I'm sure all the shit I've gone through being Kick Ass isn't helping. I'm sort of at a point now where school seems useless.

Especially with all the shit I've had to deal with since Katie broke up with me. I never girls could be so cruel. But I guess I didn't get it as bad as Mindy did, I mean, she never told me outright what those girls did to her, but it has to be some seriously twisted shit to get Hit Girl to crawl into my bedroom at night, crying.

Last week I found her wig and costume in the safe house and I realized she didn't take it with her, wherever she went. Which surprised me. I didn't think that would be something she'd leave behind, you know, just in case. And Mindy is like a boy scout on steroids: Prepared for nuclear fallout if needed.

Although I kind of wish she left a manual for the damn safe house. I'm finding new features everyday. Like when I moved the toaster and found a button on the counter underneath. I still haven't pressed it, for all I know it could be a self-destruct button. I wouldn't put it past her.

And if she couldn't leave me a manual of some kind, even if it was just a short note, she could at least leave me a way to get a hold of her. What if I'm facing some serious scumbag and I need advice? Who am I going to ask? Or what if I just really want to know if accidentally pressing the button under the toaster wont blow me sky high?

Or what I really want. To talk with someone that understands what it's like to lose both your parents for useless reasons.

* * *

So, chapter 2. I suppose I should say right now that Mindy and Dave's parts aren't necessarily happening in the same time frame. For instance Mindy's part in the chapter was two days after the end of her part in chapter 1 and Dave's is more like a few weeks after his part in chapter 1. But I don't think I'm going to skip around in time or anything (I doubt I could keep up with the story myself if I did).

And not every chapter will have both Dave and Mindy in it either.

But please, let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions, including grammatical errors. I have a bad habit of skipping around, but I tried my best to stay in past tense. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Oh and I think Brad (Dave's coworker) is my first original character so far. But others will surface.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wow, so yer from New York City?" A pretty brunette asked in a sweet southern drawl that gave me a headache. I'm halfway through my first day of classes and every singe person I've met has an accent. At first it was kind of cute but now I think I'm fighting off a migraine.

"Yeah. The Big Apple itself." I responded with a forced smile. Relax, I told myself. She can't help it. Besides I always craved having friends back when I lived with daddy since it was always just me and him, and being a bitch isn't going to help in making some.

"Oh my lord! Listen to her voice. It's so weird." The Brunette replied, turning to her friends and giggling. I think my eye started twitching, but I just closed them and took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.

"That is weird because, to me all your accents are strange." I said, trying to sound friendly and non-bitchy, but I may have faltered. I had a bad feeling of where this was going. I flashed back in my memory to that night where I was date ditched in the middle of the woods and Brooke and her clan laughed in my face.

"Really? Well I like your voice, it's neat." She said and all the others nodded in agreement.

"Well, thanks, I guess." I said, feeling relieved they weren't making fun of me and I took a small bite of my sandwich. Kim invited me to sit with her and her friends at lunch today, and I'm kind of overwhelmed since the last time I'd been with this many girls I was suspended for making them projectile vomit.

"Well I'm Kaylee, by the way." She said, then turned to Kim to address her. "Did yer uncle drop her off this weekend?"

"No, and he's not my uncle either. He's by dad's cousin or something. Besides Mindy took a bus here." Kim answered.

"Wow, a bus ride all by yourself? Well, we sure hope you'll like it here in Cooper. We're such a cute little town, and summer's 'bout to start and all the tourists'll be stopping by so maybe you'll get to meet some fellow New Yorkers!" Kaylee said proudly.

"Tourists?" I asked, looking from face to face.

"Oh yeah, Coopers a little tourist spot you know. We've got all kinds of bed and breakfast places and of course there's town square… Oh! And the ranches get a lot of visitors too." Kim answered.

"Ranches?" I asked again, "As in cows?"

The girls laughed. "Of course, Mindy." Kim answered and smiled before sharing a look between her friends. "This is Texas. There's all kinds of cattle ranches 'round here."

"And horse ranches too, don't forget those!" Another girl added.

"Wow, New York sure must be different." Kaylee said. "Don't you have any farms around the city? I know there probably aren't any inside the city, but surely there's some surrounding it, right?" She asked me.

"No, actually I don't think I've ever even seen a cow in person before." I answered with wide eyes and slack jaws as my response. So I hastily added, "But I HAVE seen horses. NYC has mounted police."

"Oh lord, we've gotta get you 'round some animals." Kaylee replied, once regaining her composure. "The county fair's coming up in a few months and that's always fun cause it's got all the baby animals."

"Oh my god, you 'member the baby pigs?" One of the girls piped up.

This sent all the girls into a fit of squeals and giggles. I just sat watching them freak out over pigs. I can't possibly imagine pigs being cute, bunnies and kittens, but not pigs. But I suppose I have a lot to learn about southern life, it seems girls down here think pigs are cute.

.

.

.

The next time I met up with Kim and Kaylee after lunch was during PE. There wasn't actually a whole lot of physical activity going on, mostly just waiting in line to do some basketball drills, which bummed me out. I thought we'd be running or doing pushups, and I haven't had the chance to workout since coming to Cooper a few days ago. At this point I've got all this pent up energy I don't know what to do with.

My internal whining was interrupted however when Kim pointed out a classmate across the gym. "I swear every time I see Patirck Welder he's more attractive." She said as she gazed longingly across the gym floor.

Kaylee giggled, "Oh I know. Give me a piece of that beefcake." She added, clearly transfixed on the boy, biting her lip.

He wasn't bad looking, brown hair, and a nice smile, and he had on one of those cutoff shirts guys wear to the gym so you could see his arms were thick and defined with muscle.

"Tell me Mindy, isn't Patrick gorgeous?" Kaylee asked.

"Um, I guess." I answered, looking him over.

"You guess? Hon, look at those arms, how is there any guessin'?" Kim replied, and Kaylee turned to look at me.

"Well what DO you like in man then?" Kaylee asked me, pausing, and then adding, "I mean, what really makes you wanna drool over 'im?"

My mind flashed back to the moment before the warehouse fight when I saw Dave shirtless for the first time. All those muscles, and how big and wide his chest looked. I must have zoned off thinking about him since the next thing I noticed was Kaylee waiving her hand in front of my face.

"I think we lost 'er. Earth to Mindy, come in Mindy." She said, teasingly. Once I came to and looked at her she laughed and added, "Well, whatever it is you like must be really somethin'."

Kim laughed, "Well?" She asked.

"Um, I guess muscles." I replied and then added, "But he's gotta be more than just good looking for me to really like him, I mean I'm not shallow."

They both laughed. "Well, duh. That's what so great about Patrick, he's good looking and nice." Kim replied.

"Yeah, I dare you to find a nicer boy in Cooper than Patrick Welder." Kaylee added.

"Not that he'd ever go out with us or anything." Kim said. "He's been dating Karen Moore for ever. Even after she moved to California to model."

"Yeah, she won Miss Burnside County last summer and got recognized or somethin' so her parents moved her out there." Kaylee added.

"But Patrick's been dating her long distance still." Kim said, "They're such a cute couple, cause Patrick always wins the rodeo competitions at the fair, and last year she won the Miss Burnside County title. It was the cutest thing."

"I would have thought you'd be jealous of her, I mean, she's dating the guy you like, right?" I asked, confused.

"No, I don't think Patirck 'd ever be interested in my anyway." Kim replied.

"Sides, we've lived our whole lives here in Cooper with 'im, and he's not noticed us yet." Kaylee noted before adding, "But it doesn't mean we can't enjoy lookin' at 'im." Kim and Kaylee laughed.

This was so new to me, liking boys and talking about boys with girls. I'd thought all girls would be like Brooke and her cronies: bitter, self absorbed, and manipulative. So far, Kaylee and Kim have been nothing but sweet and helpful. I keep waiting for a catch, but even when talking about the girlfriend of a boy they like they're nice.

The PE instructor interrupted our conversation by telling us class was over and to go head to the locker rooms. "And don't forget, on Friday we're gonna have a special guest here to teach martial arts!" She yelled after us in a sing-song voice. This piqued my interest. That's actual physical work, and something I'm good at.

However, both Kaylee and Kim groaned. "Oh no, I forgot about that." Kaylee moaned.

Kim turned to me, "We have such a weird PE teacher, she's always doing weird stuff like bowling and roller skating. Last year she had an instructor come teach Jazzercise." Kim said.

"Ugh, that was horrible, I swear I was tryin' to catch my breath for the rest of the day." Kaylee added. "I'm sure martial arts is gonna be just as bad."

I felt unsure about my next move, but I bit the bullet and decided to be friendly. After all, I need to make friends here anyway. "I've taken some martial arts classes before, it's not so bad." I responded, trying to reassure them it wouldn't be so bad trying to remain nonchalant while secretly screaming for joy inside that I'd be able to practice my skills.

"Really?" Kim asked.

"Totally. I mean, I haven't done jazzercise before, but martial arts is a piece of cake." I replied.

"Good, well then you can help us Friday if we need it." Kaylee said, smiling. "You know Kim, I think we've made an invaluable friendship." She added.

Kim laughed. "Of course we did, how many times do you get to be friends with a New Yorker here in little Cooper?"

They both laughed and I couldn't help but smile. I think I've made my first real friends.

* * *

No Dave this chapter, but right now there's more to Mindy's story than his, so this is all you get. Also I actually had a PE teacher like that. She was always doing weird things like jazzercise and bowling. We had a martial arts guy come a couple of times. We all thought she was weird, but still liked doing the weird things like laser tag.

Anyway, hope you like, please let me know what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

Over the last four days I think I've got the hang of this school. I finally learned the shortcut to homeroom, and I stopped accidentally walking into the boy's bathroom. Both Kim and Kaylee have turned out to actually be nice for genuine reasons, and not to manipulate or poke fun at me, or at least as far as I can tell.

Kaylee has already asked me to work over the summer with her at some local hotel, working the front desk, and both Will and Jennie thought it was a great idea to earn some extra spending money. Evidentially Marcus has somehow routed money here to pay for any expenses I have like shopping and eating out, just so I'm not a financial strain on Will and Jennie, but it's always nice to have a bit of extra cash. Plus Marcus' money probably makes it look more believable that I'm here because he wanted me to have a normal and safe life, rather than the truth, which is that I'm on the run from the NYPD.

Not that I'm hurting for cash anyway, I made sure to bring some of my suitcase money with me if I had an emergency, but I didn't bring it all. I left about a million back in the safe house, in case Dave ever needed it for something like new equipment or repairs to the safe house itself. Of course I can't be a big spender off the money I brought since no one knows about it, so the summer job ideas looking better and better.

I wonder if Dave's got a job, I mean even with a million dollars, if that's all you have to live off of, it could go fast. I mean aren't most lottery winners in debt up to their eyeballs nowadays? Plus Dave's so responsible, I'm sure he's gotten a job to bay bills or whatever.

I was wondering what Dave was doing while getting dressed for PE. Today was the big day, the day the martial arts guy came to teach us. I don't know where he's come from cause I know Cooper doesn't have any dojos, not that it matters to me, since I'm sure I'm probably more advanced than anyone in Cooper could even think about teaching, but still I was curious where our teacher found this guy.

"Well, let's get this over with." Kim said, morosely and I laughed.

"Come on, you just have to think of it like a game." I encouraged both her and Kaylee, who were both dragging their feet. "Make it fun." I added.

"Well aren't we perky today." Kaylee responded, clearly not interested in taking my advice. I just smiled in response.

The class assembled itself around our teacher and another man dressed in a karate uniform, which I assumed was the martial arts instructor. I could feel happiness and excitement bubbling up inside of me just thinking about what we could be doing today. I was imagining some kick ass kicks and punches when our teacher introduced our instructor and gave him the floor.

"Howdy, I'm Ben and I run a martial arts studio outside Ft. Worth." He said, introducing himself. Well that explains where he's from, I thought to myself.

"First of all, I want to stress that the things I'm going to teach you today are purely for self-defense purposes. You shouldn't go out after class and start attacking anybody. I just want you all to learn some basic self-defense techniques to keep you safe from attackers."

Well fuck this. All the happiness and energy I felt moments earlier drained out of my body the moment he said self-defense. He's just going to teach deflecting tactics. And to think I was excited about this. Of course after dwelling on this for a few minutes I realized that it's probably a good thing. After all, I don't want to get carried away and either blow my cover, or accidentally kill someone. Can't imagine that going over well. And I guess deflecting moves are important too, I do pride myself on being able to out maneuver any attack.

But still, I was pretty bummed. I was brought out of my reverie when Kaylee pushed me forward. "Mindy will! She's taken martial arts before!" She shouted out. At first I was confused but then the dumb ass instructor motioned for me to come forward.

Oh god, I'm going to be a volunteer or some shit. Thanks a lot Kaylee. I stood next to the instructor and he asked me to introduce myself.

"I'm Mindy." I said, then adding, "Mindy Macready."

"Well, Mindy, it doesn't sound like you're from around these parts." He said, and I wanted to punch him in the face. First he's only going to teach lame karate and now he's drawing attention to the fact that I'm not a Texan, cause I haven't gotten enough of that yet.

"No. I'm from New York." I answered deadpan, holding back a death glare.

"New York! Well, that's a long way to travel just to get martial arts training in PE!" He replied trying to be funny. Some students laughed, I rolled my eyes.

"Well, Mindy, I want you to help me demonstrate a basic defensive technique." He said and backed up into a fighting stance. I automatically crouched down into my stance as well. "I want you to come at me with all you've got, and I'm going to deflect your attack." He said and motioned for me to come at him.

I locked into autopilot and was inches from his face before I realized I shouldn't actually come at him with all I've got. Shit, the guy's from Ft. Worth, he can't stand a chance against me, and despite him getting on my nerves, I shouldn't obliterate the guy, he's just teaching a high school PE class.

So at the last second I drew back my force and my arm was easily pushed out of the way by his 'defensive maneuver.'

He then turned to the class to demonstrate what he was doing and instructed them to practice the move. The class worked on that one for a few minutes and then moved on to two other techniques that I had to pretend to be a wimp in demonstrating. I tried to channel Dave, pre training with me, just to get through the class.

After it was over I was getting a drink at the drinking fountain when a voice I didn't recognize called out to me.

"Mindy, right?" A guy's voice met my ears, and I stood up from bending over the water fountain. When I stood up I was face to face with none other than the "gorgeous" Patrick Welder.

I almost choked on my water, but then gained composure. "Uh, yeah, Mindy." I replied. I looked him over up close and I could definitely see how Kaylee and Kim liked him. His arms were toned and I could see a light glisten of sweat hanging onto them. But then my mind flashed back to that image of shirtless Dave again and Patrick's attractiveness diminished. But only slightly.

"I'd heard there was a new girl in town from New York, but I hadn't had the chance to meet 'er yet." He said, with a warm southern accent filling his words.

"Um, yeah. That's me." I answered and my face got hot for some reason.

"Well, don't be a stranger." He said and flashed a dazzlingly wide smile. I was definitely blushing then.

"Um, yeah, no. I mean…" I was at a loss for words. What was wrong with me? This is just a dude. I'm just talking with him. No need to freak out. I can chop off people's arms and legs with ease, but talk to a cute boy and my brain stops functioning. Is this a puberty thing? If so, this is bullshit.

He laughed, but in a nice way. "Maybe I'll see you 'round, Mindy from New York." He said backing away.

"Yeah, sure. You too…"

"Patrick, Patrick Welding." He supplied, even though I fully knew his name.

"Yeah, Patrick… From Cooper." I added before he smiled and turned away.

I turned around and was met with two widely smiling faces. I almost jumped ten feet in the air.

"Oh good lord." Kim started.

"Look at you! You're grinnin' from ear to ear." Kaylee said. And I realized that I was in fact smiling about as much as they were.

"I can't believe that just happened." Kim added.

"What, what happened?" I asked, was there more to our conversation than I realized?

"Patrick Welding just came up and talked to you." Kim answered.

"No, Patrick Welding just came up and flirted with her." Kaylee corrected.

"What? No, he was just introducing himself…"

"Hell no! He was so into you, I swear." Kaylee interrupted. They both seemed like they were bouncing up and down with delight.

"You really think so?" I asked and looked after the area Patrick had been standing.

"Oh, for sure, hon." Kaylee reasurred me.

I smiled again and felt a blush creeping up my cheeks.

* * *

"You know, I haven't seen or heard anything about Hit Girl in a while." Todd said as he flipped through the brand new Hit Girl Comic.

Todd, Marty and I were sitting in our regular booth at Atomic Comics. I didn't really mind spending my day off at the comic store, in fact I'd enjoy it if it wasn't for the fact that Todd insisted we go so he could pick up the new issue of the Hit Girl comic that came out today.

Todd was obsessed with Hit Girl ever since she stormed onto the scene in that viral video of Frank D'Amico's and saved my life. In fact, we all make fun of him for it.

"Okay Todd, please contain your girl crush so we don't catch your vaginitus." Marty quipped, right on cue. I chuckled. Todd looked up from his comic to give Marty a dirty look, but then went right back to reading.

"I'm serious guys. It's like she's disappeared off the face of the earth or something." Todd said.

"She's probably hiding from the police since she's wanted for killing a shit ton of people dude." Marty told Todd.

"Dave knows." Todd said, turning to me. "You're like team mates, right?" He asked me.

"Dude! Shut up, people are gonna hear you." Marty yelled at him quietly before I had the chance to answer and I was thankful. Mindy had somehow become a topic I didn't want to talk about. Her absence was starting to hit me hard. I'd somehow started to rely on her like a crutch. And without Mary, Todd, or any of the other Justice Forever members to help be either I was starting to get run down.

When I first started being Kick Ass I had so many requests coming in, but I didn't feel bad about telling some of them that I was too busy. Now that I'm graduating high school and not going on to college it's like Kick Ass is all I really am anymore. I go at night and work for hours, come home, sleep for a few hours, get up and work at the pizza place and there are still so many ass holes out there I have to start all over again the next night. I'm starting to feel like I'm running on fumes.

And of course the person I want to turn to for advice is gone to who knows where. At least I could answer Todd's question half way, I know she's not in the city.

"Yeah, and Brad could come in any minute." I told Todd, coming back to the conversation. I had invited my coworker, Brad, to Atomic Comics to introduce him to comics since he enjoyed superhero movies, but hadn't ever been into comics before.

"Fine, fine." Todd grumbled. "I was just curious. Besides, knowing Hit Girl, she's probably still fighting crime like a bad ass, she's just being really elusive." Todd added, smiling to himself. I had to smile too, I hoped that what all the bad guys thought and the police too. It's totally believable.

"Seriously Todd, the size of your vagina is making it hard to talk with you anymore." Marty quipped at Todd again. God, I'm gonna miss Marty's messing with Todd when Todd goes off to school.

"Your friend has a vagina?" Came a voice from behind me. I turned around in the booth and Brad was standing there with a quizzical but kidding look on his face.

Marty obviously noticed Brad's kidding expression, "Yeah, Todd here has a HUGE vagina." He said. Brad laughed and fist bumped Marty before sitting down in the booth beside me.

"This is my coworker, Brad, guys." I said. "He's here for a comic book conversion."

"How can you not read comics, dude?" Marty asked Brad.

"I don't know, I like the superhero movies, but I've just never read the comics. I like the stories in the movies, I guess the comics are different." Brad replied.

"So superheroes are your thing, then." Todd asked.

"Are there comics without superheroes?" Brad asked us, looking from face to face.

"Yeah, but the superhero ones are the best." Todd said, which sparked a debate between himself and Marty, which lasted a few minutes.

"Okay, okay. I'm open to non superhero comics then." Brad spoke up, trying to end the spat.

"You've just got here and already pissed off Marty." I joked. "Way to go." I laughed and patted Brad on the back. He chuckled in response.

"Well, if I'd known comics were so controversial I might not have come." He responded joking back. "What's that you're reading now?" Brad asked a still riled up Todd, while motioning towards the open comic in his hands.

This snapped Todd back into fangirl mode and cheered him up from his fight with Marty. "This is the brand new Hit Girl comic that came out today." Todd explained.

"No way. They have comics for the real live superheroes?" Brad asked.

"Hell yeah! Although there's only two series right now: Kick Ass and Hit Girl. They used to have Red Mist too, but they discontinued it cause he turned into the Mother Fucker." Todd started rambling on.

"Which is kind of strange, just cause a character turned to the dark side doesn't mean that people stop caring or stop reading the comics." Marty added. "I mean look at how many people cosplay as villains."

"I'm pretty sure it's because this is real life, and while Catwoman and Magneto have fans, they're fake, and the Mother Fucker's actually killed real people." I said, the blood starting to boil in my veins. Both Todd and Marty turned to look at me and shared a look between themselves.

"But Todd is probably the biggest Hit Girl fan on the planet." Marty spoke up, diverting the conversation. "He'd have a serious Hit Girl boner if he had a dick. But his giant vagina gets in the way of that."

"Wait, you have a crush on Hit Girl?" Brad asked Todd.

"Well, I mean, she's like amazing. You saw that video right? Where she came in and fucked up everyone?" Todd asked, defending himself.

"Yeah, I saw it, and it was pretty incredible, but she's like thirteen right?"

"Fifteen." I said, quickly, without thinking. Both Marty and Todd both stared at me panic written on their faces.

Brad looked at me strangely and I realized my mistake. Instantly I started searching the corners of my mind for a reasonable explanation as to why I know how old Hit Girl is when she's about elusive as D.B. Cooper.

"How do you know how old Hit Girl is?" Brad asked me. It felt like both Todd and Marty were sending telepathic messages back and forth with me trying to help me out.

"Um…" I tried buying for time and then it hit me. "Todd told me once." I spit out, "He found it online in some forums." I turned to Todd, begging him to take the torch.

"Oh, yeah. There's a forum I like that has all kinds of information speculated about the real superheroes." Todd said, starting to ramble on about some website, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I'm so used to Marty and Todd knowing about me being Kick Ass I forgot about hiding it from Brad, who already seems like a close friend. If Mindy knew how close I'd come to not only blowing my cover, but hers too, she'd be kicking my ass for weeks.

* * *

Dave's back in this chapter. I know right now things feel like they're moving kind of slow (at least to me), but I'm hoping in the next chapter or two that some big things are going to happen. Also, this chapter has my highest word count yet! Please let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

I need a hobby. Regular people have hobbies, right? All I know is I've been bored out of my fucking mind. School at least gave me some diversion to a never-ending cycle of monotony, but now that it's summer I've found myself in a rut. Every day it's the same skull numbing routine: Get up, eat breakfast, either go to the community pool with Kim and Kaylee or sit in the air conditioning and watch TV (Which I swear is always either on MTV or CMT, if Nick isn't around to watch cartoons), then we eat dinner as a 'family,' watch the news, watch whatever is on TV that night, and go to bed.

If I see one more episode of True Life I'm gonna drop kick the flat screen. But it's just so fucking hot here. You can't do anything unless it's inside or at the pool. I regret every time I whined about the weather in New York, I'd give anything for a blizzard right now.

Which is one of the main reasons I'm dreading being dragged to the county fair next week. I can't stand to even imagine what it's going to be like standing around in that heat with all those smelly animals and sweaty people. I'm dry heaving just thinking about it.

Of course Kim and Kaylee are both over the moon with excitement. I don't understand what's so amazeballs about the fair; tractor pulls and prize winning cabbages don't really sound all that exciting. But after what happened at the pool yesterday Kim and Kaylee just about pissed themselves with glee.

Patrick "Gorgeous" Welder personally came up to me at the pool yesterday and told me he hoped I'd be at the fair to watch him in the rodeo competition.

Yep, and he still has a girlfriend. Which Kim and Kaylee seem to be oblivious to. But I'm pretty sure he was actually flirting with me. I'm no expert, but when a guy comes up to you at the pool, asks you to see him perform at the fair rodeo competition, and then leaves after flashing you a charming smile, it's fair game to be called flirting. At least in this neck of the woods.

So I'm just waiting for this girlfriend to pop up, slap me in the face, and call me a home wrecker. Maury here I come. And I haven't really been leading Patrick on or anything. At least I don't think so. I don't go to talk to him or bat my eyelashes whenever he's around (unlike two girls that I know of).

Besides, I'm not even that into him. I mean, rodeo? Please. Try going out on the streets of New York and taking down not one, but two major crime bosses (even if they're from the same family). With a jet pack installed with Gatling guns.

Of course that was only the first time. But still, Patrick hasn't ever come at the opportune moment, guns ablaze, to save my life. Not that I'd ever need him to. It's much more likely I'd have to save his life.

Plus now that I've seen him without a shirt on, I can say without a doubt, he's got nothing on Dave. Yeah, his arms are nice, but the rest of him doesn't hold a candle to what Dave had going on underneath his geeky t-shirts.

But maybe that's the reason why I can't stop picturing Dave half naked. Before that night at the safe house, he was just geeky old Dave, in his weird t-shirts and his glasses and that fro. But now he's Dave, with the muscles and big shoulders, and amazing lips.

And now whenever I think about him, every part of him seems great. The t-shirts are cute, and his glasses are adorable, and I want to twist my fingers in his hair.

Ugh, but I need to just stop thinking about him. I left both Dave and Hit Girl behind in New York, that's where they need to stay if I'm going to make this thing work. All I need now is a proper distraction.

So after everyone went to bed tonight I stayed up, and crawled up into the small access space to the attic from inside my bedroom closet. And as I sat up in the stuffy attic, cleaning and maintaining the small gun collection I was hiding up there, I started to think about what I could get into as a hobby to occupy my time.

At first I thought of cooking, especially when thinking back on tonight's dinner. Jennie made this creamy amazing chicken thing that I had three helpings of, and then for dessert she had homemade chocolate cake with gooey chocolate icing. I think I gained ten pounds just from tonight's dinner, but it was worth it.

Besides, I was planning on working out tomorrow with Kim and Kaylee anyway. Not that those two were going to be on the same level as me, but I've discovered it's nice to have company. Plus after training Dave I've discovered how fun it is and I've wheedled my way into training Kim and Kaylee under the false pretenses that I got some phony certification at the "Y." Sometimes it worries me how gullible they are.

But then I thought back to Marcus' last birthday when I tried to make dinner to surprise him, and how horribly wrong that went. I really don't want to have to ask Jennie or Will for a step ladder so I can scrape meatballs off the ceiling. So I figured cooking probably isn't a hobby I should pursue.

The next thing I thought of were comics. I love comics and daddy made comics, so maybe I could get into art. I could even write my own comic. Shit, I could make accurate Hit Girl Comics. But then I don't want to reveal all my secrets, it kind of defeats the purpose of wearing the mask and being so secretive. But that didn't mean I couldn't get into art. Talents are often passed down right? So I had to have some artistic abilities.

Wrong. I tried to quickly sketch out the pile of guns in front of me on a blank page in that sniper manual, and subsequently decided that art was neither my gift, nor my hobby.

But I could still be artistic. Maybe music was my thing. I could start a bad ass, all girl, rock band. I smiled at the thought, but then two different thoughts popped into my head: One, I don't want to draw attention to myself, what if our band got super famous? And two, in Cooper Texas, there are no rock bands, I would have to be a country singer. No thank you.

I groaned and climbed out of the humid attic back into my cool bedroom and flopped onto my bed. Is it really true that the only thing I'm good at is kicking bad guy ass? That I have nothing else to occupy my time or even make a living off of?

What about when I have to live on my own, pay bills, hell, pay taxes. I mean it's true I'm not hurting for money, but I can't steal pimp money and buy a home and pay my bills off of that. The IRS would have a bitch fit over my taxes.

What am I going to do with my life?

* * *

I graduated from high school today.

It's kind of a weird feeling, going through that ceremony and getting my diploma without someone there to congratulate me or pat me on the back telling me that they care. Of course people did do that. Both Marty and Todd's parents shook my hand and told me they were proud of me, but they also said they knew my dad would have been proud too, which is something I didn't want to hear.

I already know that. That's why it hurts that he's not here to congratulate me.

I know I'm starting to become bitter and mopey about my life, but I feel kind of entitled to it. Not just everyone with a dead parent lost them to a fucking psychopath super villain.

Which is why I went out on patrol tonight rather than go to the big parties most of my classmates are going to. I feel a duty, a sense of purpose. I need to protect the innocent, I owe it to my dad's memory to make sure nothing like what happened to him, happens to anyone else.

And when I'm out on patrol, even though most of the time I'm running around, kicking ass, I get a feeling of calmness. Like being Kick Ass makes up for my shitty lot in life. I can punish the low life scum of this city to pay for what their kind did to my dad.

Of course all this reflection and even my graduation today weren't the most interesting thing that happened. I ran into Brad tonight. Or shall I say I had to save Brad's ass tonight.

My patrol started off pretty low key. I headed to that purse snatching area again, but it seemed like all the scum found out I know their secret spot now, and have cleared out of that area. So after that dead spot I moved on to a place I'd gotten a lot of requests from, ranging from theft to assault. I got a couple of guys down and out ready for the cops to come pick up their sorry asses when I spotted Brad.

He was walking across the entrance to the alley I was in. I froze, thinking if I didn't move, he wouldn't see me. He walked on by oblivious to what was going on in the alley he just passed by. But he was kind of oblivious to everything, as I found out.

I peeked around the corner and watched him turn left to go down a different alley, I suppose to take a short cut, but something made me feel uneasy, and Mindy had taught me to trust my gut when it came to scum. If you think they'd do it, they probably will. And with the way Brad was walking by, headphones in his ears, face pointed down at his phone screen, he looked like easy pickings.

I followed Brad at a safe distance, keeping to the shadows, and sure enough, a group of thugs rounded the same corner, casually taking pursuit of their prey. I was busy trying to decide how to intervene in the situation when the group of thugs circled around Brad, locking him in their trap. They were exchanging various threats directed at Brad, when I decided to climb up the fire escape nearby and launch off on top the dumpster, and roll off into the big muscular guy.

I was halfway up the fire escape when I heard the distinct shing of a butterfly knife opening. I looked over my shoulder to the group and saw that Brad was being a dumb ass.

Shit. I thought to myself as I watched Brad crouch down, ready to spring into attack. From personal experience, getting shanked is not pleasant, and I knew Brad didn't stand a chance. I changed my game plan, and called out to the thugs, trying to grab their attention, and hopefully scare them off.

"Three against one again? You know, you low lives ought to get a little more creative with your approach." I yelled out to them and their heads snapped around to look at me. The eyes of the other two without the knife grew wide and were ready to back away. But Billy Bad Ass with the knife showed no fear.

"Kick Ass! I was hoping to run into you one day." He replied, unwavering in his stance against Brad. "That way I could finally rid our streets of your sorry face." He smirked at me and I braced myself to spring into action against the three. But instead of coming strait after me, Billy Bad Ass leaned forward and thrust his knife deep into the left side of Brad's abdomen.

"No!" I cried out, in shock, but quickly recollected myself and launched off the fire escape I was clinging onto.

I slammed down on top of Billy Bad Ass and his arm twisted underneath himself, flinging the blade across the pavement. I heard a familiar loud crack and smiled before smashing my fist against his face. I then grabbed his hair and thrust his head hard into the cement. He was dazed, but not unconscious. But I had to move on.

Next I rounded on his friends. One of them had already run off, too scared to even fight me, the coward. But the other one wasn't lucky enough to get out of my reach. I stretched out my leg to trip him as he tried to make a run for it and nabbed him, sending him down to the ground. He caught himself though and sprang back up, ready to defend himself.

I easily deflected his wild swings at my face and brought a fist up hard into his diaphragm, knocking the wind out of him. I noticed Billy Bad Ass stirring on the ground and gave him a swift kick down on his chest to make sure he stayed down before turning back to his friend. He was coming at me again with a clenched fist aimed at my temple, but I ducked and hit him in the side, twisting him so his back was to me. I landed a few punches right at his kidneys and he fell to the ground. I kicked him hard in the head and he was out.

Billy Bad Ass was still conscious though. He tried to get up again, and landed a good kick to my balls. I fell to the ground in pain, but thankfully I was wearing my padded suit, so I wasn't out for the count. Billy Bad Ass was up again though, and started wailing on my head with his good arm, boxing my ears and kicking me in the chest. As I was getting wailed on I felt the fight leaving my body. But then I looked over at Brad, who was lying on the ground, clutching his side, a pool of blood forming below him.

Seeing Brad bleeding and defenseless filled me up with purpose and strength again. I was reminded of my father and how I was unable to protect him, and I was damned if I couldn't fight off this ass hole to help Brad.

I deflected his next punch and flung my legs out to wrap them around his neck. I was successful, and easily tackled him to the ground. He flailed about for a while before I grabbed his hair again and smashed his face into the concrete over and over again. He still wasn't unconscious though. He was down for the fight though. I had won.

I zip tied his hands together, just to make sure, and as I rose up to do the same to his friend I heard him croak out something.

"You're a dead man." He weakly mumbled. I snarled and smashed his head into the ground again, this time ridding him of his consciousness. I didn't even bother to zip tie his friend though, since Brad called out to me.

"Kick Ass, please…" He softly moaned.

I ran over to his side and hoisted him up. I half walked, half carried him the block and a half to my parked car and loaded him inside. As soon as I took my seat I ripped off my mask and drove like hell to the hospital. I didn't care if Brad could see me or not. At this point he was dying.

I ripped off my suit and thankfully had boxers on underneath tonight. I carried Brad into the front desk in my underwear, and watched as doctors and nurses rushed him back into the depths of the hospital. I answered a few questions before realizing I'd forgot to call in the two thugs I'd left behind for the police to pick up.

I didn't care, they could rot there on the concrete where I left them for all I cared. So I just took a seat to wait for news if Brad would make it through the night or not.

* * *

This is the very first time I've ever even attempted to write a fight scene. I've usually only written fluffy love stories before, but obviously Kick Ass deserves more than that. The blood, gore, guts, and violence is what makes it so good.

But I did it, even if it's not great. Also I think that Dave's part is longer than Mindy's this time, and that may never happen again, but we will see.

I've also started watching a lot of other movies recently that have either Aaron Taylor Johnson or Chloe Grace Moretz in them and I'm thinking of using elements from those movies in this story.

Also, this chapter is my longest yet, breaking the 3,000 word mark. Yay!

Well, please let me know what you think and if anyone has any advice, especially for my fight scene writing, PLEASE don't hesitate to give it. After all, I can't get better until you tell me I'm doing it wrong :)


	6. Chapter 6

I know what I want my hobby to be.

Who would have guessed I'd find my hobby at the county fair? Not me, that's for sure. Up to the moment I discovered this magical hobby I was not enjoying my time at the fair.

First, Kim and Kaylee dragged me into the animal barns where the smell of feces and the three-digit temperature combined into an overwhelming sensation that just about knocked me off my feet. Although the rabbits were awfully cute, I couldn't stand the pig barn and actually waited outside until Kim and Kaylee were done looking.

Then we perused the different food stands trying foods I've not only never had, but I've never heard of either. Just about everything was fried and actually pretty delicious but I think the deep fried butter was pushing it a little. This part wasn't so bad and my favorites were the deep fried snickers bar and the blue ribbon barbecue ribs.

Next Kim and Kaylee wanted to look at the 4H displays, which weren't too bad either, but that was just because it was air conditioned in that building. There were some cool black and white pictures in there, but almost everything had to do with farm animals.

By that time, the main events were happening in the grand stand and we sat down to watch the tractor pull. Which was really boring and contained mostly a lot a waiting around for a ridiculous looking tractor to drag a giant trailer loaded down with weight.

After the tractor pull was over, Kim and Kaylee jumped up from their seats. "Come on, let's go see if we can say good luck 'fore it starts." Kaylee said, tugging me up from my seat and leading me down towards a group of young men all wearing ridiculous outfits.

This is where we met up with Patrick. He was wearing a bright red button up shirt with white embroidery and fringe on the shoulders. He also had on a black cowboy hat and black leather cowboy boots. In short, other than the jeans he had on, he looked like a total dork. Upon seeing him, I tried to smother a snort of laughter, but failed. Instead I turned it into a cough, hoping Patrick would buy it.

"Howdy ladies." Patrick drawled out, tipping his hat in our direction. I smiled wide, fighting the urge to laugh again. It was just kind of ridiculous seeing him wearing that outfit and doing something so quintessentially southern.

"Howdy yerself, Patrick. Mindy just wanted to come down and wish ya luck 'fore the competition." Kaylee responded. I turned and shot her a dirty look. This was most certainly not my idea. Plus let's not forget about his girlfriend. Which inspired my next question.

"So, Patrick, is your girlfriend coming to see you compete?" I asked him, softly nudging Kaylee, hoping she'd get the hint.

Patrick glanced over at Kaylee and Kim, with a confused look on his face. "Uh, I don't have a girlfriend, Mindy." He said.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "But, Kim and Kaylee were telling me she won the beauty contest or something. She lives in Cali?" I asked, confused. Was he trying to trick me into thinking his long distance girlfriend doesn't exist, just because I'm from out of town?

Patrick laughed. "Yeah, she moved away and we tried to keep it together, but the distance just didn't work for either of us." He answered.

"Oh." I said and felt my cheeks heat up like they did when I'd first met Patrick.

"We broke up." Patrick added, causing Kim and Kaylee to gasp.

"No! You're kiddin' I still thought you two were together." Kim said and I noticed she had softly elbowed Kaylee.

"Naw, we broke up a while back." Patrick said and looked over at me. I felt my cheeks start to burn, and I felt like my face must be as red as Patrick's shirt.

Thankfully an announcer came over the loud speaker then and asked all the participants of the rodeo competition to go get ready so we said farewell and took our seats to watch the action unfold.

I hadn't expected much, especially after the unimpressive tractor pull and the ridiculous clothes Patrick had been wearing. But by the time the second contender finished his round I was sitting on the edge of my seat. This is what I'd been missing.

Rodeo, as it seems is a perfect combination of skill, swiftness, and strength: All three, being things I'm good at. There were three parts to the competition: calf roping, barrel racing, and bronc riding. Each competitor received a score for how quickly they were able to complete their task, and the highest combined score won the medal.

Patrick was the seventh competitor out of ten and I have to say he blew all the other competitors out of the water. He worked with such intensity and precision I was sucked into his performance. His hands flew so fast, twisting and knotting the rope into shape and then swinging it perfectly onto the neck of the calf. It was exhilarating to watch, and I could only imagine what it would be like to participate.

After the competition, which Patrick won first place in by the way, Kim, Kaylee, and I met up with Patrick to congratulate him. After the usual 'great jobs' and 'I knew you would wins' the crowd surrounding him thinned out. Patrick's eyes met mine and I blushed.

"So, Mindy, have you had the chance to get any of Grandma Betty's famous ice cream yet?" Patrick asked me and I noticed Kim and Kaylee were slowly backing away.

"No, not yet." I replied.

"Well, I'd love to buy you some, if you'd like." He offered, flashed a charming smile and I started blushing again.

"Sure, I'd love to cool off a little." I said, following him towards the food carts, trying to remain calm.

"Are you enjoying the fair?" He asked me.

"Yeah, the rabbits were cute, and the food is good." I answered, leaving out the fact that the smell of the other animals made me want to vomit and the heat is making me feel like I'm going to pass out.

"Good. So, how're you likin' Cooper?" He asked and turned to me so I could see his white teeth shine from between his curved lips.

"It's nice, Everyone's really nice. Which is different from what I'm used to in New York." I answered.

"Really? That's a shame. I'd hate to live somewhere where the people are always rude." He said.

"Well, it's not so bad. Besides, I'm used to it. But for the most part people just ignore you." I replied matter-of-factly.

He laughed and ordered my ice cream from the vendor and then handed it to me once it was ready. I took a bite and I had to say, Grandma Betty knew what she was doing. Patrick and I kept walking around the fairgrounds, both Kim and Kaylee long gone. We chit chatted back and forth about trivial things for a while, then Patrick offered to win me prizes from the game area.

It was kind of nice. I actually felt like a normal teenage girl while he threw ping-pong balls into glass cups and handed me a bright green stuffed alligator, or at least a normal girl in Cooper. After the sun set we were walking towards the parking lot to head home and he stopped and turned to me.

"I had a great time tonight with you Mindy." He said.

"Yeah, me too." I replied. I bit my lip, trying to gain the courage to ask him what I'd been wanting to for the last few hours. Patrick was smiling and I decided to just go for it.

"Look, Patrick… There's something I wanted to ask you." I started.

"Yeah?"

"It's about your rodeo competition."

He smiled, urging me on.

"I was wondering if you could teach me how to… do rodeo." I said, anxiously awaiting his response.

Patrick raised his eyebrows, but then resumed his big smile. "Really? You wanna learn rodeo? Miss New York?" He asked me, patronizingly.

I bit my lip out of nervousness, but then channeled my trademark Hit Girl bravery. "Yeah, I do." I answered boldly.

He slowly nodded his head. "Okay, yeah. Start on Monday?" He asked me, cocking his head to the side.

I smiled, "Yeah. Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Brad is okay. Unlike my stabbing experience he wasn't hit by a car afterwards. So the doctors were able to simply stitch him up, give him some blood and he was okay. Although I did hear the doctors mention he was really lucky no major organs were damaged.

Brad's family showed up a few minutes after I had come back inside after finding some spare clothes in the back of my car so I didn't have to sit half naked in the waiting room. They were both very appreciative for me bringing him in. I made up some story about us being attacked together and getting away. Since Brad had lost so much blood he passed out, he hadn't been able to dispute it yet.

Of course now I was milling around waiting for him to wake up, so I could talk with him before he had the chance to blow my identity. He had been moved up to a recovery room and that's where his parents were. I'd gone to grab some coffee for the three of us since we had been up all night.

I balanced the three cups as I opened the door into Brad's room. It was dim inside and I could see Brad's mother sitting beside his bed, his right hand covered by her own. Brad's father noticed my entry and stood up to accept a cup of coffee.

"Thanks." He said tiredly, and sat back down on a couch, taking a sip of the coffee. Brad's mother turned to look at me, but her hands stayed connected with Brad's. She smiled weakly and I put her cup of coffee down on the side table next to her.

That's when Brad started to stir. His mother jerked her attention back to him, and his father stood up, coming to his beside. I was still standing behind them and had a great view of his family. His parents were crouched beside him, smiles of relief on their faces. I felt a pang of jealousy but brushed it aside.

"Mom? Dad?" Brad called out weakly. His mother hugged him and his father responded.

"Brad! We're so glad you're okay." He said. Brad smiled and then noticed me in the corner of the room. His eyes went wide for a second, but then he smiled again.

"Dave…" He started. But his mother interrupted him.

"We're so glad Dave was able to get you out of that mess. He's stayed here at the hospital the whole time." His mother beamed.

His parents and he talked for a while but after a few minutes he asked to be alone with me. His parents didn't seem like they wanted to leave but still followed his wishes anyway. This left me in the room alone with him. I stood there awkwardly staring at the floor in the silence.

"Dave… Thank you." He said, breaking the silence.

I looked up and smiled at him, walking over to his bed. I was wondering if he remembered anything that had happened or if he realized I was Kick Ass. But before I had the chance to ask him he answered those questions.

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I promise." He said, smiling weakly.

I chuckled. "Thanks dude."

"I just can't believe you're..." He looked around and lowered his voice. "Kick Ass."

"Yeah, well…" I said, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly.

"And I can't believe you took out both of those guys all by yourself." He added.

"Well, I wasn't always that good, I assure you." I remembered my first night out for about the millionth time that night. "In fact, my first experience as Kick Ass was a lot more like your night than mine."

"Really? I've seen that video and it didn't look bad." He said.

"Well, that wasn't my first night out. I actually was stabbed AND hit by a car." I said sheepishly.

Brad's eyes went wide. "And you went out again after that? I guess I should feel lucky then, huh?"

I laughed, "Well, I wouldn't say that." I told him. I was happy he was joking, it meant he really was okay. "Look, I want to thank you for being cool with this." I said.

"Of course, Dave. You saved my life." He said, seriously. "I'm the one who should thank you."

"It's no problem man. It's kind of what I do." I said, chuckling.

"No, seriously, those cops that are after you are dumb asses." He said, starting to sit up in bed, making me a little nervous. "I won't tell anyone about what happened, promise."

"Thanks man." I told him genuinely thankful for not only his promise, but the fact that he was still alive. I'd become pretty close with him since working together and dragging him to Atomic comics with Marty and Todd. He fit in really well with our little group.

After getting him to lay back down in bed and making sure he was going to be okay, I said goodbye and let his parents back in to see him. While driving back home I chuckled to myself. Great, I thought, now I have another person that knows I'm Kick Ass. At this point if Mindy ever comes back she won't want to have anything to do with me.

I decided to crash at the safe house rather than home since I knew Brad had to work tomorrow and I'd already called in to take his place, and the safe house was closer to work than my home. After taking a shower and changing clothes I laid down on the bed in the dark. My mind bounced around on my fight that night and my conversation with Brad in the hospital.

I couldn't shut it off, so I got up and went into the kitchen. The microwave flashed 2:30 and I sighed. It was usually like this after going out. I was still so on edge and alert that I couldn't sleep. I wondered how Mindy dealt with it.

Then I remembered her affinity for hot chocolate. I figured I'd try it, it could be her secret, not that I would be able to confirm this. But I tried it nonetheless. I fixed a cup and was ready to take it to bed with me when I remembered that she usually added marshmallows. I smiled thinking of the last time we shared a cup and searched for some marshmallows to add to my cup. I added a handful to the top of my cup and lifted it in the air.

"Here's to you, Mindy. Wherever you are." I said and took a drink.

* * *

Well Mindy's story should start to get a bit more interesting now. I rewrote Dave's part a couple of times and I'm still not crazy about it. Mindy's story just has so much more happening than Dave's does so I think that there may be more chapters with only Mindy's POV and no Dave coming up. Otherwise There will just be boring useless Dave chapters.

Anyway, please review and let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 7

I got up bright and early Monday to head out to train with Patrick. I had to ask Kim where he lived though, like a dumbass I hadn't thought to ask him at the fair, and after I explained my intentions she just about shot through the roof. And of course the first thing she did was call Kaylee to tell her about it. I had to smile though, Kim and Kaylee were possibly getting more satisfaction out of this than I was. But of course that was because they thought I was interested in him. Which I'm not.

Even though he's single, I haven't forgotten what happened on my last date. Plus there's no Dave here to comfort me if it happens again, and even though I told myself I was just going to forget about Dave, I can't bring myself to do it. I don't really want to either.

Dave is the first real friend I've ever had. I trust him to have my back in a fight, and I trust him for everything else really. I didn't go running home for Marcus to comfort me after my date ditched me in the woods, I went strait for Dave. Although, whenever I think of that night, my cheeks get all hot like they do around Patrick. I don't know what that means yet, and I'm sort of dealing with it by ignoring it.

Anyway, since Patrick lives on a ranch right outside town, I couldn't really walk there. I immediately thought of my bike that I've left hidden in a wooded area on the outskirts of Cooper, but dismissed it. It would be pretty dumb to take it to Patrick's for him to notice it, it is pretty memorable after all. So I had to ask Will to drop me off on his way into work.

It was a weird car ride. I haven't spent much time with Will alone since moving here, even though he's Marcus' cousin. He works as an EMT in the hospital one town over, so Patrick's ranch wasn't too far out of the way. We sat in silence in his pickup truck for a minute or two before he turned the radio on and some twangy country music came on, causing me to grind my teeth together.

"So you're learning rodeo from Patrick, huh?" He asked me trying to strike up conversation. I was eager to do so if it meant drowning out the music coming through the speakers on the dashboard.

"Yeah, I was surprised how much I liked watching it. I, uh, thought it would be fun to learn." I replied, trying to stay conversational without telling him I've been bored out of my fucking mind living with him the past few weeks.

"You know, rodeo can be really dangerous. I hope he doesn't try to teach you anything you could get hurt doing, like bull riding or somethin' like that." He said, and I felt half thankful he cared enough about me to worry and half irritated he didn't think I could handle it. After all, the rough parts were the things I was most looking forward to. But then again, he wasn't Marcus. He didn't know that I've taken out armies of mafia men, single handedly.

"I don't know what he's going to teach me. I just hope I'll be good at it." I said, trying to remain conversational, lest the country music get too noticeable, but still aloof.

We were driving through what looked like wilderness aside from the asphalt road and the wire fence on each side of the state highway when a large wooden archway came up on the left and Will turned into it. Hanging from the top of the arch was a metal sign reading Welder Quarter Horses with two horse silhouettes on either side of it. The road turned into gravel, and then into dirt with two deep tire ruts guiding Will's truck along.

As we bounced down the road, off in the distance I could see a large house with yellow siding and next to it several bright red barns, one of which was much larger than the others. I was expecting to see old and worn looking buildings and equipment strewn across the property but everything was immaculate. The barns had crisp white trim and there were several sturdy looking gates and fences off to the right. As we came closer to the house I noticed it had a large front porch with pretty white wicker furniture and several colorful potted plants on it.

Will got out of the car with me and I just stood there for a second. I didn't know what to do, should I knock on the door to the house, or should I head toward one of the barns? Then I heard a faint sound off in the distance, and it started to get louder. I realized it was the sound of barking dogs and started to panic. I saw a small herd of dogs round one of the barns and head strait for me. I looked around for shelter and the closest thing was Will's truck. I climbed effortlessly into the bed of his truck and stood there as the dogs hurdled around it and headed strait for Will.

Will didn't seem fazed though, as he knelt to the ground and let all five of the very large dogs, knock him down barking and trampling all over him. I was watching in horror as the dogs were swarming around Will when I heard another sound, the sound of laughing, coming from behind me. I whipped around to see Patrick standing behind me bent over, hands on his knees laughing.

He caught his breath and whistled shrilly and the dogs left Will, and congregated around Patrick, all appearing very obedient, quite opposite of what they appeared to be just seconds earlier. I looked back at Will and he was getting up, dusting off himself. I heard Patrick chuckle from behind me again and turned back to him.

"I've never seen someone climb into the back of a truck that fast 'fore in my life." Patrick said, still laughing and I mentally slapped myself in the face. I must have been too quick.

He knows.

"I don't think Mindy's had much experience around dogs." Will said smiling as he came around the truck to where Patrick was standing and shook his hand and the dogs started to get riled up again. "Will Travis." He introduced himself.

"Patrick Welder." Patrick answered, and then looked up at me, laughing again. I then realized Patrick wasn't shocked I'd climbed up into the truck so fast, but rather was laughing at me for being afraid of his dogs. Not that I was afraid of his dogs, I mean I could totally have taken them out if I had to, I just didn't want to kill somebody's dogs.

Both Will and Patrick were smiling looking up at me, standing in the back of the truck. I felt my face get hot again and edged to the side of the truck to get out. This caught the dogs' attention and they came to the edge, waiting for me to get down. I froze.

"It's okay, Mindy, They won't bite ya." Patrick said, pushing he dogs away, and reaching a hand up to help me out. I took it, and felt a soft warmth fill me up at the touch. I ignored it and looked back at the pack of dogs as I slowly climbed down.

"Here." Patrick said and knelt to the ground letting the dogs surrounded us. I stood as tall as I could, with my hands up in the air, ready to push them way, as some of them stood up on their hind legs, trying to get at me. Patrick laughed again. "They just want to say hello. They're friendly." He said and I looked at him then back to the dogs. I noticed almost all of them had their tongues sticking out and had a happy look to their faces rather than murderous and I relaxed. A couple of them jumped up on me and knocked me into the truck, but were licking my face so I started laughing.

"See, they just want to get to know ya." Patrick said.

"Well, Mindy, I've gotta go, so I'll leave you here with Patrick." Will said and I looked over at him, still laughing from the tickling of the dogs licking me.

"Okay, I'll see you later." I called after him in between giggles. I could hear Will chuckle.

"I'll pick you up on my way home, okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, sounds good." I answered, the dogs finally calming down and loosing interest in me.

As Will drove away I looked at Patrick who was looking at me, a wide smile on his face. "Have you ever been around dogs before?" He asked me, one eyebrow shooting up above the other.

"Yeah I've been around dogs." I answered indignantly, but then added, "Just not this many at once before."

Patrick laughed again. "I'm afraid to ask you if you've ever been around horses before."

"I've been around horses too, for your information." I answered, hotly. "We have mounted police in New York, and there's carriage rides in central park."

Patrick laughed even louder. "No, Mindy, I mean have you ever ridden one before." He said.

My face got all hot again and I looked down at the dogs, who were now busy wrestling each other. "Oh." Was all I said.

Patrick sighed loudly and then smiled at me. "Well, I guess the fist thing I need to teach you then, is how to ride a horse."

As it turns out, horses are big. I mean, I knew horses were big, but I just forgot how big they are. I've actually never been on a carriage ride and now that I come to think of it, I've never seen mounted police in person either. So when Patrick opened up one of the stalls in the large barn next to his house and that behemoth of an animal was staring at me, I sort of backed up a bit involuntarily.

Patrick laughed again and took my hand in his. That warm feeling came over me again but was pushed right out of my mind when I realized he was guiding my hand right towards that horse's mouth. I started to pull back on my hand, and Patrick laughed again.

"It's okay. She's not going to hurt you. I just want you to pet her, Get used to her a little bit." Patrick explained.

"Oh, yeah." I said dumbly. What is wrong with me, I thought, it's just a horse. I'm Hit Girl for fucks sake, I can handle a stupid horse.

I let Patrick guide my hand up and I felt the horse's rough fur on my fingers. He moved my hand up and down her snout for a minute before he let go and I was rubbing her nose, all on my own. I smiled, see, this isn't so bad, I thought to myself. It's just a horse, not big deal.

"There, I think she likes you." Patrick said.

.

.

.

The rest of the day was spent around this horse, whose name turned out to be Dallas. Typical. Patrick taught me how to saddle her up, how to get on top of her, and how to ride her. After a few hours of just slowly trotting in circles Patrick told me he thought I was ready to go a little faster. Which at the moment I was thinking, thank god, this is getting boring. But as soon as we started moving I wasn't thinking that anymore.

Dallas started hauling ass. I'm used to riding my Ducati at break neck speeds and even making sharp turns and doing all kinds of tricks with it, but this is a horse. It's a living thing with a mind of its own, and I don't control it like I do with my bike. But then I noticed Patrick was riding right along side me on his own horse, making it look like it wasn't a big deal and I felt lame.

Dammit, Mindy, I told myself for what felt like the millionth time that day, pull yourself together, If you can go into a crack house with just a pen knife, you can ride a fucking horse.

By the end of the day though, I had mastered my fear of Dallas. Of course I hadn't learned anything else other than how to ride a horse, but Patrick told me he was impressed with how quickly I'd caught on.

"Most of the time it takes people a long time to get comfortable enough to go real fast like you did." He said. "I'm impressed."

I smiled at his praise. Bitch, I am the queen of learning new skills. If he only knew.

Patrick promised he'd teach me some rope techniques the next time, and we set up a training schedule where we met Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Which also impressed him, he wasn't expecting me to take it so seriously. I told him the truth, that I was just bored and I wanted to learn something new.

"I might as well get good at it, otherwise why bother at all?" I told him. He smiled.

"You know, Mindy, You're not like girls 'round here." He said, causing me to blush for the millionth time that day. "And not just cause yer 'fraid of animals." He added, teasing me.

"Hey!" I said, softly punching him the arm. The sensation reminded me of when I used to do that to Dave, but I used to do it much harder to him than I had Patrick. Still, I was reminded of Dave and I realized that most of my time spent with Patrick reminded me of Dave. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I didn't dwell on it.

"Still, Mindy…" He said, trailing off. "I'd like to take you out sometime." He said, looking me dead strait in the eyes.

I didn't know what to do. I wasn't interested in dating this guy. I didn't trust him. But the way he was looking at me made me feel bad about saying no. Plus I knew if Kim or Kaylee ever found out he asked me out and I said no they would think I was crazy. Maybe I AM crazy. Here the most sought after guy in the entire county was asking me out on a date and I didn't want to go out with him just because I didn't trust him.

So I took a deep breath and bit the bullet. "Okay. What did you have in mind?"

* * *

I hope you're all happy cause I've been doing research on rodeo stuff and now all my internet ads are Tractor Supply Company and Wrangler Jeans.

But anyways, I didn't put Dave in here cause like I said last time, Mindy has more going on than he does so you guys get all Mindy chapters.

I couldn't help but put in the part about Mindy freaking out about the dogs cause as I was writing it popped into my head and it seemed so ridiculous that I had to write it out. I figured she doesn't get to be around dogs a lot in NYC especially lots of big dogs so I kind of think it's in character. But you know she played it off like it was no big deal.

So let me know what you think, and please review!


	8. Chapter 8

Patrick taught me how to tie lassos today. I caught the hang of that quickly since I'd been using my grapple gun since I was five, and it's a pretty similar handling. But my problem is that I'm learning everything too quickly. Patrick keeps telling me he's shocked at how quickly I'm catching on to everything. Maybe I should start doing some shitty takes before I really start trying.

Still, so far I'm loving rodeo. I've got the hang of the lasso and I can ride around on Dallas pretty well, sometimes she gives me a hard time and trips me up, but for the most part I can ride her. I couldn't wait until he taught me something really kick ass like bull riding or something. But when I brought it up he pretty much dashed all of those hopes.

"Bull riding is really dangerous, Mindy. In fact none of the competitions around here even have women bronc riding, let alone bull riding." He said.

"What? Why the hell not?" I asked indignantly. Is this some southern misogynistic bullshit?

"It's really dangerous, that's why. Besides you have to be eighteen to do it even as a guy." He said.

Bull Shit. I bet I could beat everyone's ass off if I were able to try it. But I can't cause I'm a wittle hopewess girl.

Cock suckers.

Nonetheless I still went on training with Patrick learning all the terms for rodeo and running drills. I've got some pretty good times according to not only Patrick but his father and two brothers who came to watch me run the barrel race a few times. His father even recommended I compete. He said I was the fastest learner he'd ever seen, and I still don't think be believes I just learned to ride a horse a couple weeks ago.

But now that I've learned how to tie lassos I can start learning the really fun stuff like cattle roping. Since evidentially that's as far as I'm going to get due to my gender. Of course I should probably act a little more feminine, and ugh, dare I say it, frail. Since down here most girls are like that.

But then, according to Patrick he likes me for that. I went on my first real date last week and I actually liked it. For one thing, he didn't ditch me in the middle of the woods so that's good.

Of course when I told Kim and Kaylee that he'd asked me on a date they squealed for a whole minute. I timed it. And though it doesn't sound like it, a whole sixty seconds is actually a long time. But then they started bouncing around asking about what I was going to wear and where he was taking me. Of course I didn't know the answer to either of those things at the time. But they helped me with the first part.

Kaylee leant me one of her sundresses and I used some of the money from Marcus to buy my first pair of cowboy boots. Patrick said I needed some anyway if I was going to be serious about rodeo, and from the beat up and dusty red look of my tennis shoes I knew he was right.

Still I felt really weird going into the western wear store and trying on boots. I felt really out of place and everything had 'bling' on it. I finally found a pair of boots without 'bling' and purchased the brown leather boots at what Kim and Kaylee assured me was a great price. Although I can't imagine spending this much on shoes on a regular basis.

But Patrick told me the boots were great and even though I felt like a total dork throughout the whole date from what I was wearing, I still had fun. He wound up taking me on a picnic and fishing. Yes fishing. Evidentially he's really good at it, and I believe it since our picnic was actually him cooking the fish he caught. It was kind of cute, I guess, if you're into that mountain man kind of thing. Which Kim and Kaylee are because when I came back they were beside themselves.

But it was kind of fun nonetheless. He taught me how to bait a hook and everything. I guess he thinks I'm into being taught new things. Kim and Kaylee said it had to be the most romantic thing they've ever heard of but it was just him skewering a worm onto a metal hook. It wasn't like we gazed deeply into each other's eyes or anything. We just fished and talked and ate.

But he did tell me something on the date that made it pretty memorable. He signed me up for a rodeo competition next month.

"Are you sure I'll be ready to compete by next month?" I asked him unsure about it. I'm the kind of girl who wants to know she's going to annihilate her competitors before she even signs up, after all.

"Of course, Mindy, You're the quickest learner I've ever seen and I know the competition 'round these parts. By next month you're a shoe in to place." He told me. I smiled, I really enjoyed his praise, it's been so long since I've learned anything new or been told that I'm good at it. Not since daddy taught me how to escape zip ties anyway.

That night after coming home and going up to bed, I couldn't sleep and I crawled back up in the attic to do some more gun maintenance. Mostly I was thinking back on Kim and Kaylee's reactions to how my date went, since they were both waiting with bated breath for me to come home and tell them how it went. I smiled thinking of them, their faces bright and wide with emotion.

I especially enjoyed the moment when I told them that he'd kissed me goodnight. I think Kaylee was on the verge of fainting at that point. I did like the kiss, but it was different from when I kissed Dave. But maybe that was because I kissed Dave whereas this time, Patrick had kissed me.

Either way I couldn't help but compare the two to each other, which I've noticed I've been doing a lot of lately. Somehow I just feel like if I had to choose between the two Dave would win, not that that's likely to ever happen, since Dave lives in New York and Patrick lives here in Cooper. Plus I doubt Dave would ever want to be with me anyway, I'm younger than he is and much less 'developed' than his last girlfriend.

But tonight I'm too worn out from training with Patrick to crawl up in the attic and fuck around with my guns. I'm going to have some serious bruises from that damn goat he had me tying up. But I did get it done so I'm feeling pretty optimistic about my upcoming competition, and of course I'm going to do everything in my power to win it.

* * *

I can't believe I'm being forced to take therapy. Like I'm a crazy person. I feel pretty justified in losing my shit on Todd at work today. Pretty fucking justified.

But my manager is telling me I have to go to therapy. At least it's covered by the insurance I just got into last week. But still, it's not like Todd was just some random customer, which is how my manager is viewing it. Which, how did I ever think I wanted to be with her, just because she's got huge tits? Fuck her.

See what happened was it was a Wednesday and it was pretty slow so my manager wasn't even in to see what went down. It was just Brad and me in the front since he'd gotten well enough to work again. But Todd and Marty were going to have an all night game-a-thon so they ordered the pizza, but were too cheap to pay delivery so Todd came in to pick it up.

Well, Todd actually came and ordered it and waited around for it to be ready. So he was sitting in the front bull shitting with Brad and I. And since Brad knows about me being Kick Ass now the subject comes up a lot, especially after Brad found out Todd and Marty were a part of the warehouse fight too. Well we were talking about that infamous fight again when Brad asked Todd a really fucking interesting question.

"Wait, you weren't a part of Justice Forever, right? So how'd you know to be there for the fight?" Brad asked Todd, confused.

Todd grinned sheepishly. "Actually, I was kind of a part of the Mother Fucker's team." He said, looking down at the floor.

"What?!" Both Brad and I asked him in unison. Both Brad and I turned to look at each other.

"Wait, you didn't know this either?" Brad asked me.

"No. I just thought Marty told him about it." I said, turning back to Todd. "Are you fucking serious dude? You actually joined the Toxic Mega Cunts when Marty and I made fun of you?" I asked him, incredulous.

"Well, yeah, when I first joined we didn't do anything and we all just hung around in his awesome warehouse lair." Todd said.

"Wait, how long were you a part of his… His… Operation?" I asked him getting heated.

"It wasn't long, actually just like, right before…" And he trailed off, looking strait at me.

"How fucking long, Todd?!" I asked him, pulling him up by the front of his shirt and starting to get pissed.

"Well…" He stammered.

"Dude, what's the big deal?" Brad asked me, trying to calm me down. "So he accidentally joined the bad guys. If you guys were making fun of him, what's the big deal?" He asked. I just stared down at Todd and he cringed.

"Okay, man! It was right before your dad died." He said and held up his hands in defeat. I threw Todd back into his chair and paced back and forth in anger.

"Your dad died?" Brad asked me. I never realized I hadn't told Brad about my dad dying, but then again it's an issue I don't like to talk about.

"Yes. Chris Fucking D'Amico killed him in prison." I told Brad, but looked strait at Todd. Todd shrunk back in his chair and looked like he was pondering making a run for it.

"Holy shit." Brad said. "I had no idea, dude, I'm…" Todd cut off what Brad was about to say next.

"I'm sorry, man. I didn't know. I just, I didn't know." Todd said, starting to sniffle.

"Didn't know what?" I asked him, now more intrigued than ever.

"I didn't know he was so… Evil." Todd answered, meekly. Then it clicked in my head.

"You fucking told him he was my dad?!" I screamed at Todd, and I didn't notice it at the time, but when I was forced to watch the security camera footage afterwards this was when Tony came out from the back with Todd and Marty's Pizza.

I don't remember it honestly, after lunging at Todd the next thing I remember was Tony grabbing me and literally throwing me behind the counter to knock the fight out of me so I'd calm down. Todd was a bloody mess, and Brad was running back from the bathroom with a wad of paper towels to soak up the blood gushing out of Todd's nose. I lay on the floor behind the counter for a few minutes before I got back up again. Not because Tony had really hurt me or even stopped me, cause if I wanted to I probably could have fought to the death. But the reason I stayed was because the shock was hitting me.

Todd was the reason. Chris would have never known who I was if Todd hadn't told him. I was still pissed at Todd, but now the unbearable sadness was taking over. I actually crawled up into the fetal position behind the counter, on the floor, and cried.

My best friend had betrayed me. Now I know the real reason Mindy doesn't let anyone know her secret identity, it's not because she's afraid of other people getting hurt, it's because she's afraid of people hurting her.

Tony called in our manager and she sorted the mess out, made me watch the security tapes, went through with guidebook protocol and has now told me I have to take therapy since Brad spoke up and said it was a personal issue, and not just that I lost my fucking mind and went ape shit on a random customer for no reason.

Marty tried calling me about twenty times before he actually came over to the house and tried to talk to me in person, but I didn't even let him in the house. He then got a hold of Brad and both of them started beating on the front door before the neighbors told them they'd call the cops if they didn't stop. So they left.

I've never wanted to talk to Mindy more in my life than right now. I even contemplated calling Marcus to see if he could help me get a hold of her, but I knew that would only hurt her and myself in terms of the police looking for Hit Girl and Kick Ass.

So I've resigned myself to staring at the ceiling above my bed until I pass out from exhaustion or until the tears make it too hard to see anything.

* * *

Well, things took a turn for the worse for Dave. But on the bright side, things are looking up for Mindy. I almost had Dave's part happen last chapter, but I wanted to space out more of Mindy's story first.

It's something I always wondered about in the movie since in the comics it has Chris finding out about it all on his own (since Dave told him everything in his torture scene), whereas in the movie Todd just goes and tells Chris about it. Now, I know that Todd is just being dumb and unaware, so don't go hating me about Dave hating Todd, it's just a part of Dave's dealing with everything, I guess. I have nothing against Todd.

Please let me know what you think, reviews are always appreciated!


	9. Chapter 9

This is not a good idea. A superhero taking therapy cannot end well. I'm sure she's going to find out with all her psychobabble bullshit. And I'm not even a very good liar.

What am I supposed to tell her? That I hate my old best friend because he betrayed my secret identity to an evil psychotic super villain? How am I going to explain to her what happened without making myself sound just plain crazy?

At least she was nice. She was older, about her mid forties, I'd say, and instead of wearing prim and pristine dress suits, like I was expecting, she had on jeans and a regular shirt. I noticed that she had a few gray hairs tucked in with her dark brown ones and the starting signs of crows feet around her eyes as well. She said her name was Dr. Geraldine Diederich, but that I could just call her Ina, which was good, cause I knew I'd totally butcher her name if I had to call her Geraldine Diederich.

Her office was high up in some skyscraper and she had a large window that looked out on the city. I just plopped down in the chair she motioned at and looked at all the books she had displayed on the table in front of me. Her desk was in the back of the office, near the window, and there was a more casual sitting area in the middle of the room where I was seated. The coffee table that was covered in books, that seemed to be typical coffee table type books, sat in between my chair and the couch she took a seat in.

"So, David. Can you tell me what happened between you and your friend?" She asked me calmly. Her voice was nice, sort of relaxing, like the type you hear in baby soap commercials.

I sat there for what seemed like ages before answering her, she probably thought I didn't want to talk about it, which is partly true, but really because I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a believable excuse that didn't include confessing my secret identity and telling her my dad was murdered by the Mother Fucker.

The only thing I could come up with wasn't great, but then, how would she know the truth anyway?

"We got in a fight about my dad." I started. My plan was to say as little as possible until she begged me for more information, that way I had less of a chance of tripping myself up on my lies.

Ina just nodded, scribbled something on her notepad, and urged me on. "About your father? What about your father?" She asked me.

"My dad's dead." I told her, giving her a dirty look. She just pursed her lips and waited for me to go on. "He was murdered. In Prison." I said.

"Well, I'm very sorry to hear that, David. I'm sure it must be very difficult for you." She told me, sounding very reassuring, but she didn't move to make any comforting gestures, like most people do.

I remember Marty's mother used to come up and pat me on the back or rub my knee trying to comfort me right after it happened and I was still staying with the Eisenburgs. It was actually annoying, so Ina's warm voice alone, without the combination of physical touch was actually reassuring.

"Yeah, call me Dave, by the way, it's what everyone calls me." I corrected her, starting to relax around her, but I still kept my guard against revealing my secret.

"Okay, Dave, how long ago did your father pass?" She asked me.

"A few months ago. It was before I graduated." I told her. She nodded slightly and wrote something else on her notepad.

"So what was it that your friend said, to make you so angry?" She asked me. I paused before answering, trying to remember the story I'd made up earlier.

"He made a joke about prisons being violent." I told her, trying to stick to as little details as possible.

"So that set you off into beating him up?" She asked me, not pressing for details, and I mentally sighed in relief.

"Yeah. It was… Insensitive." I told her, staring down at the books on the coffee table again.

"Is this the first time you've heard your friend make jokes like this?" She asked me.

I wasn't sure what to say, I wasn't sure which was the safest answer. On one hand, if I said no it justified my actions, but on the other hand if I yes it could mean that my dad's death sets me on edge. Which is true, and if that's the answer she's looking for I don't mind giving it to her.

I went with yes, thinking we could make this all about me dealing with my father's death, since if I'm going to be honest, I'm actually struggling with in real life, and it's not like I have anyone else more highly qualified to talk to about it. The only other person I'd even want to talk about it with has fled the city.

Besides, I kind of liked Ina. She seemed nice, and other than trying to keep my secret identity from her, it relaxed me a little to actually put into words out loud the fact of my father's death.

But she did ask me why he was in prison. I wasn't sure how to answer that either, since I knew she could look up that he'd been arrested in connection with the rounding up of superheroes. I decided truth was the best policy, and figured that since the police still don't think I'm Kick Ass, why would she?

"He was arrested because I had posted some stuff online about superheroes." I told her. She just looked at me for a moment.

"Your father was arrested because you made online comments about superheroes?" She repeated, asking me to explain.

"Yeah, it was, um… Back when the police were trying to arrest all the superheroes and I'd made some comment on a superhero website that they traced back to my house and my dad…" I trailed off; I realized this was not a good excuse. This excuse was only going to lead to the truth, which I was not going to share with Dr. Geraldine Deiderich.

"Your father was arrested instead of you?" She asked me.

Shit. I've got to think of a way out of this, somehow, I thought to myself.

"Yeah, he just didn't want arrest on my record, you know. And he, uh, knew I was into comics so when the police came he said he made the comments. Cause this was back when the police were all fired up about it cause all those police officers died." I blurted out, hoping she'd buy it. But it wasn't actually too far from the truth.

"Okay." She said and started writing on her notepad. She scribbled for what seemed like a long time and I started to feel uneasy. But she stopped and looked back up at me again. "And after he was arrested he was killed?" She asked.

"Yeah." I said sadly.

"And you blame yourself for his death." She said, stating it as a fact, more than a question.

I paused before answering. "Yes." I told her.

"That's a very heavy burden for anyone of carry, Dave. I'm very sorry you feel that way." She told me in her soothing voice. I started getting choked up at this point. "But you should know that it's not your fault. You didn't tell the people that did this to your father to do it. There are misguided people all over the world, Dave."

"I know." I said, thinking of all the thugs I've taken out in the months since my father died, and calmed myself down.

"I think that it's a great opportunity for you to come talk to me about these feelings you have. Do you talk to anyone else about your father?" She asked me.

"No." I said, curtly.

"Then it's very good we're talking about it now, Dave." She answered, giving me a warm smile. "I want to see you at least twice a week, and you can always call me if you feel the urgent need to talk something out." She said, wrapping up the session, but not moving from her chair to usher me out.

"Okay." I replied.

"Is there anything else you wanted to talk about before our time is up?" She asked me.

"No. I'm… Fine, thanks." I told her. She led me out of her office and I went home after that. I've been suspended without pay through the rest of the week so I don't have to work. So I went to the safe house, rather than my actual home.

As I went through my training I thought back on what Ina had said about my father's death not being my fault because I hadn't told those men to actually kill my father. I wasn't totally sure if I believed that or not. After all, she didn't know the whole story like I did.

So was it my fault for killing Frank and having Chris send out thugs to repay me? It could easily be seen that way. So does that mean my being Kick Ass killed my father? Or was what she said true? Bad guys just kill people, and there's nothing I could do about that. So my being Kick Ass was helpful, to stop other thugs from doing the same thing to other innocent people.

I wasn't sure which was true. Maybe instead it's a vicious cycle where I get rid of bad guys so they mess up my life and in return I have to get rid of more bad guys. I wanted to ask Mindy what she thought, but I realized I knew what her answer would be. She'd say the exact same thing Ina said, of course in a more colorful way.

I figured that was enough answer for me now, and vowed to start perusing through my comics to see if the topic ever came up, just for second and third opinions. After all, if Batman and Spiderman can't answer this question, who the hell can?

* * *

Today was the day of the competition. We all woke up early and packed into the car and headed out of town towards Greenville, where the competition was being held. Patrick was headed out with his family as well, since he was competing too and was bringing our horses in their trailer. Both Kim and Kaylee were coming along too since, as Kaylee put it, "There ain't no way we're missin' this."

Despite it being early we were all pretty hyped up. Of course stopping for pancakes on the way there probably didn't hurt either. I'd gone with Kim and Kaylee a few days ago to buy my outfit I was going to wear during my performance. It took hours for me to find something I could stand to wear, but I finally found a plaid button down that was pretty normal. I just wore jeans, and my boots I'd bought before, with it and Jennie and Will surprised me with a white cowboy hat they bought for me. I didn't really want to wear it, but I didn't want to seem ungrateful.

Once we got into Greenville I noticed that it was different from Cooper. We passed an area that had shops with bars on the windows, which is pretty unheard of in Cooper, and also around that area were some interesting displays of graffiti. It was really tame compared to what I'm used to of course, but it was still kind of jarring after spending all my time in Cooper. I guess I just figured the entire south was like Cooper. I noticed when we passed through that area the car got pretty quiet, and I wanted to ask, but bit my lip since it would probably seem weird to ask.

Otherwise, Greenville was nice. It was much bigger and there were some recognizable restaurants and shops that we passed along the way, whereas Cooper is pretty much all locally owned. When we finally pulled into the grounds for the competition and parked our car, I noticed everyone was wearing cowboy hats and dumb shirts with embroidery. So I was actually thankful Will and Jennie bought me the hat. And the people were everywhere. The place was much more crowded than the fair was, and I started to get a little nervous.

But when my time started and the gate opened, letting Dallas and I start weaving around the three barrels, all my nerves melted away. I went into the zone. It was like when I was fighting off thugs: I had tunnel vision, all I could see were those barrels. Dallas did great. And I received the shortest time of all the competitors in my round without tipping a single barrel.

Next I had to do calf roping. Dallas and I worked like one and when I had my rope around the calf's neck she backed up to hold it tight, just like she was supposed to. I had that calf's legs tied up in 10 seconds. Only one girl had a better time than me and it was only by half a second.

The last event was goat tying, which was just like the calf roping., and I thought was kind of weird they had both calf and goat tying, but I wasn't going to complain. Once again, Dallas and I worked as a team. I received the shortest time for that event and my combined score beat out all the other competitors.

That's right. I won first place. Take that, girl who beat my calf roping score by half a second. The Travis' were so happy they took us all out for dinner after the competition to celebrate. Patrick and his family met us at the steakhouse as well.

We were having a great time, chowing down on steak and potatoes when the shit hit the fan.

Out of nowhere the loud bang of a gunshot went off from the back of the restaurant. My entire table, as well as the rest of the dining room stopped what they were doing and went silent. My instinct was to crouch under the table and reach for my pistol, but after ducking under the table, I remembered I didn't have any of my weapons with me.

But thankfully my ducking under the table wasn't perceived as strange, since the rest of my dining party followed my example. Some people started screaming and running for the door, and I noticed some kitchen workers had run into the dining area.

"He's dead, they killed him!" One of the kitchen staff screamed above the commotion in the dining room.

"Somebody call 911!" Someone else yelled out and everyone panicked. Will called out to those of us under that table.

"Come on, let's get outta here." And he helped Jennie up and ushered all of us out of the restaurant.

"What about our bill? We still have to pay, Will." Jennie said, worried, after we had all gotten safely outside.

"Seriously?" I asked her incredulously. This is some serious southern hospitality bull shit.

"It's okay, I left our phone number behind to contact us if they're worried 'bout it." Will said and pushed us toward where we had parked our cars. Kaylee and Kim closed ranks beside me and I felt Kaylee reach out and grasp my hand in hers. I looked over to her and her face was paper white.

I hadn't even thought about her being frightened, I had automatically shifted back into Hit Girl mode after the gunshot rang out. I was more worried about trying to gage the situation and figure out what was going on, rather than try to soothe the feelings of those around me.

I'd never been in a situation where I had to protect a group of innocent people before, innocent people that I knew personally. Bursting in to rescue daddy that night D'Amico had captured him was the only time I had ever used my skills purely to protect people I loved and cared about. Mostly I'm just hunting down asshats to cut down.

I squeezed Kaylee's hand in mine and she looked over at me with wide, fearful eyes. "It's okay. We're going home." I told her reassuringly.

The car ride home was totally silent, all the happiness and victory we had been celebrating minutes earlier had vaporized into the night. I hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye to Patrick. We dropped off Kaylee and once we got into the Travis home I couldn't hold it in any longer.

"What the fuck was that about?" I asked and then slammed my hands over my mouth. I have been doing really well at restricting my mouth around Cooper and here I went and dropped the f-bomb.

Will and Jennie's faces were shocked and Kim stared at me. "Um, I mean…" I started.

"Well, despite this evenings turn of events, there's no reason to be usin' such vulgar language, young lady." Jennie said to me, regaining composure after my shocking outburst.

"We'll let it slide this time, Mindy, but please don't use language like that in this house again." Will added seriously.

"Yes, I'm sorry, it won't happen again." I said, meekly. Of course I wouldn't normally have reacted this way to being scolded for swearing, but I was trying to make these people think I was normal, and distance myself from Hit Girl as much as possible.

"Good." Jennie replied. I noticed she shared a look with Will before continuing on. "Well, I'm sure you're ready for a shower and bed after your competition today, so you can have the first shower in honor of winning." She said, sweetly, totally side stepping my question about the violence we encountered this evening.

"But…" I started.

"Come on, Mindy, you can use some of my body scrub if you want." Kim said, cutting me off and pushing me up the stairs. I turned to look at her and she made a face as if to say, just trust me.

So I did.

* * *

Well another miracle has happened: I'm pretty sure Dave's part is longer than Mindy's. But this was mostly because I wanted to stretch Mindy's story into the next chapter, and liked the cliffhanger feel to how it's ended this chapter. Also this is my longest chapter so far, which is kind of weird because when I started writing it, I felt like it was really short, especially in Mindy's part, so Dave really came through for me today. And I put Dave's part first because I liked ending with Mindy's cliffhanger better.

Also I'm not sure how many of you will take the whole Dave taking therapy thing, and since I'm not a huge comic reader I don't know if this sort of thing has ever happened before, but I figured it's interesting anyway. I just love how I've turned Dave into a touchy feely character that's always pondering life's mysteries and stuff. But on the other hand that's kind of what the first movie was like. Dave was always the more emotional character while Mindy was out kicking butt. I just like making my characters go through really rough patches I guess and then come out on the other side, better for it. Or I could kill them off. I kind of go both ways. (Mwahaha)

Anyway, I think that the story's finally gotten into some serious rising action at this point, and most of the exposition is over, I think, so from here out it _should_ get interesting.

Please let me know your thoughts and please review!


	10. Chapter 10

As soon as Kim and I got upstairs she told me to go ahead and take my shower and meet her in her room afterwards. Which I did gladly since I had been sweating since starting my barrel races. If I've learned one thing about Texas, it's that it's hotter than fucking Hades.

As I was taking my shower I thought back to the scene in the restaurant, going over each detail trying to piece things together. I was sure Kim wasn't some database of information, but she was a starting point. I realized by the point I rinsed out my conditioner that I was falling back into my routine.

God damn it, Mindy, I thought to myself. And you were doing so well. I turned off the shower and squeezed the excess water from my hair, drying off. Hit Girl is gone, she might not ever come back. Besides, I've got friends here, normal friends who aren't secretly masked crime fighters, and a boyfriend.

I think. He did kiss me. What makes a guy your boyfriend anyway? Do I have to go up to him and ask him: will you be my boyfriend? That seems pretty childish. I'm going to assume it's safe to say I've got something serious going on with Patrick.

So obsessing over what happened at the restaurant tonight shouldn't matter anymore. I have a new life now. But I had already agreed to talk with Kim. So I decided to stick to a bare bones explanation. Don't ask questions, just let her tell me the story and get out.

When I got to Kim's room she was sitting on the bed, waiting for me. As I walked through the door she jumped up and silently closed the door behind me. She held up a finger to her lips to keep me quiet, and we both sat down on her bed.

"The day before you got here mom and dad sat us down to talk." Kim started, her voice barely above a whisper. "They told us Marcus was worried 'bout you being in New York with…" She trailed off for a second, looked towards her door and lowered her voice even more. "The Mother Fucker." She had a grave look on her face.

"Wait, you know about the Mother Fucker?" I asked her, totally shocked.

"Shh!" She said, glancing at her closed bedroom door again. "Not so loud."

"Sorry." I said, whispering.

"Of course I know about… Him…" She said, side stepping his name this time. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at that. "It was all over the news after he killed all those cops." She told me.

"Oh, I thought it was just a New York thing." I whispered.

"Plus we were worried about a certain cousin of my dad's if you know what I mean." She said.

"Yeah… I was worried too after that." I said, remembering how I had wanted to go take care of business, but Marcus had stopped me.

"Anyway, mom and dad told us you were movin' in with us cause Marcus wanted you out of the city cause of all the crime and how dangerous it is there." Kim told me.

"Yeah, I knew that." I told her, starting to get bored. I was feeling pretty good about being able to keep our conversation menial enough to curtail any real interest.

"Well, mom and dad told us not to bring up any thing about crime and stuff like that cause it might upset you." She went on, rolling her eyes. "I don't know why, it's not like you're gonna freak out if you hear about something like that, right?" She asked me.

"No." I said, deadpan.

"Well, then I'll tell you what's going on." She told me. "Thankfully Cooper isn't having anything weird happening, but I could tell mom and dad were worried about going to Greenville cause they've been having all kinds of trouble over there."

"They have?" I asked, nonchalantly. "I noticed there were some shops with bars on the windows."

"Yeah, They've always had more trouble over there just cause they're bigger than Cooper and closer to Dallas. But lately things have been getting really bad." She said. I had been picking at her comforter absentmindedly, but when she said that I looked up at her, intrigued.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, starting to get interested.

"Well, some busboy was shot at the restaurant we ate at tonight, for starters." She said, sarcastically and I tilted my head in sarcastic agreement. "But the rumor goin' around is that it's gangs." She told me.

I could feel my pulse quickening then. I was already envisioning impaling some coked out loser when Kim continued.

"The talk round here is that it's only a matter of time before it comes to Cooper." Kim said forlornly. "Rumor is that it started in Dallas and is tryin' to branch out all over the state. Cooper's on the edge so if they get here, they've succeeded."

I let all this sink in and I swear I was almost literally itching from my desire to revive Hit Girl. Thankfully Jennie knocked on the door before Kim said anything else to spark my interest.

"Mindy, I just wanted to make sure you're okay, sweetie." Jennie said as she came in and walked over towards Kim's bed. "I know some scary things happened tonight, I'm sorry if it ruined your big win." She said, rubbing me on the back, soothingly.

"No, I'm fine. Just kind of weirded out is all." I told her trying to drown my desires to revive Hit Girl.

"Okay, well sleep tight girls, and don't stay up too late, tomorrow's church you know." Jennie said sternly, but left with a soft smile on her face.

Shit, I forgot about church. It's the one thing I've still not gotten used to in this town. The Travis family goes to church every Sunday, and drags me along with them. I don't have anything against God, if he's real, and I think I'd like to believe he's real, or at least believe in a heaven, since why not, it gives a person hope. I mean I'd rather think of my daddy up in heaven rather than rotting in the ground.

But I had never gone to church before. Back when I lived with Marcus, he was always working and obviously daddy and I never really went; we were too busy taking care of business. So the first time I walked into that little white church's sanctuary I was so nervous I'd be struck down with lightning after all the swearing (and let's be honest, all the killing) I've done. Those are pretty much the big bads on the rules for Christians.

But thankfully that didn't happen. And as far as the Travis family and any other family at that church know, I'm a perfect little angel. So I should keep it that way, and honestly, since moving to Cooper I don't think I've broken any of the rules, other than little swears here and there. So why start now? I've got to stop the itch to turn to Hit Gir. The police can handle it all on their own. Besides, why would gangs want to take over Cooper anyway?

* * *

Now that school's started things won't be so weird between my group of friends anymore. Todd's gone off to Michigan so I don't have avoid him anymore. But Marty started at NYU so he's going to be busy now. Brad isn't in college, like me he's still trying to figure out his life. He's actually two years older than Marty and I, so if he still doesn't have it figured out I feel better about my situation.

Lately I've been thinking about what I want to do with my life, especially after spending time with Ina. She's asked me about things like my hopes for the future, and I honestly don't know. I guess it would be nice to get married some day and have a family, but I don't know how in hell I'm going to get there from here. I don't know how Kick Ass will affect that future, cause I don't know how I'd raise a kid while doing that. I certainly don't want my kid to grow up like Mindy did.

Not that there's anything wrong with her, but I don't want my kids having those sorts of thoughts and maneuvers drilled into them at such a young age. I'd like for my kids to have a normal life and if they make the decision to become superheroes once their old enough to understand the responsibility and dedication it takes, all the more power to them.

Not like any of this matters since I don't even have a girlfriend, nor do I have any remote chance of getting one in the near future. I'm so busy between work, therapy, and Kick Ass duties I hardly have time to spend with the friends I already have, let alone meet new ones.

On the plus side though, Ina's helped me a lot with dealing with my dad being gone. I'm by no means cured or anything, but I feel a bit better about life, sort of optimistic. The big thing bumming me out now is Kick Ass.

I feel sort of cynical about it now. It's a huge part of my life, but I feel like I'm getting nowhere. I'm just taking out purse thieves and rapists, once I get one out, three more pop up to fill their place. But I can't take down major operations all by my self. I'd need a team for that. Like when Justice Forever took down that prostitution ring: we all worked together. But I know I'm not going to stop either. Even if it's just petty thieves and rapists, getting rid of one of them is better than leaving them all to fester.

And how do I balance Kick Ass and a life outside of it? All I have going on right now is working at a pizza place and I feel too busy. So I'm not really sure where my career is going to go with all the Kick Ass duties in the way. I kind of wish I could tell Ina about being Kick Ass cause I feel like she'd have an answer. She's always got an answer.

I do like Ina, she's nice and isn't too pushy plus she seems to know when I want space and don't want to talk about something versus when I need to be prodded to confess what I really feel. She kind of reminds me of my mother. She's from a German family, and mine's polish so we have that connection. But it's more than just that.

It's in the way she treats me. It reminds me of my mother's mannerisms. She seems to understand me and actually care. I know that she's getting paid, so I'm not stupid, but I kind of feel like she genuinely cares about me feeling better and finding some hope in life. I feel like she'd be able to keep my secret.

But I'm not telling her. Todd knew, and look where that got me. Not that I have anyone left to worry about losing. But still, I've learned my lesson, the less people that know about me the better.

* * *

Well, I don't really have much to say other than sorry Dave's part is so short. But Next chapter he will have more substance, I promise.

As usual, your thoughts and reviews are cherished and requested :)


	11. Chapter 11

I've been meeting with Ina pretty regularly now. I only have one more week before my required therapy is over, actually. We talk about what sort of a future I see for myself quite often and toss around several ideas, but the elephant in the room came charging in.

I've been delicately dancing around what I really do in my free time for weeks now. Whenever she asks me about my hobbies or interests I try to be as honest as possible, otherwise I'm wasting my time in therapy, but I don't tell her I suit up, put a mask on, and beat the shit out of criminals. Instead I tell her I like to workout and read comics.

This lead Ina to start asking about my thoughts on the superhero movement. We had been talking about comics beforehand, and the conversation about comics nowadays almost always leads to your side on the superhero debate. Either you like the real life superheroes and think the police should leave them alone to do their work, or you think they are going around the law and you want the police to be able to do their jobs on their own.

"So I'm sure you know about the debate over superhero rights." Ina started.

"Yeah. I know about it." I told her, feeling uneasy.

"What are your thoughts? Personally I'm all for letting the superheroes help out. The police can't do everything." She said.

"Um, yeah. I feel the same." I told her, trying to curtail the conversation.

"I'm actually a fan of them myself. My mother was saved from a purse snatching a few months ago by Kick Ass himself." She told me and I leaned forward in my chair, shocked I'd had an unknown connection with Ina.

"Really?" I asked her, now interested in the conversation.

"Yes. My mother was making her way home from my aunt's house after dinner and was cornered in an alley. The man started to hit her when she didn't give up her purse. Thankfully Kick Ass showed up and sent the theif to jail. He even stayed to make sure my elderly mother was okay." She explained.

After she told me about staying behind to help her elderly mother, I remembered that night. I remembered thinking the thief was a total scumbag for picking off a poor elderly woman and physically hurting her. Shit, she was probably on a fixed income; she's not giving up her money to some ass hole. But I did stay to make sure she was okay and even walked her home after that. Which made me feel kind of like a dork, walking with some little elderly lady, in my green wetsuit. But still, I wanted to make sure she was okay.

"Well, he's a superhero, superheroes do good things, right?" I replied, nervously.

"Well yes, I suppose they do. But I don't see why the police have to be so against them. I know that there are bad people, and certainly that Mother Fucker guy abused the power, but from what I've gleaned from news reports he sounds seriously troubled. For the most part, I think that the men and women going out and helping people out by tying up criminals for the police to arrest are doing the community a service." Ina said.

Her story and views on the matter moved me so much that what I said next came out before I even thought it through. "Yeah, I wish they'd just leave us alone. It would make things a lot easier." I grumbled.

As soon as it came out of my mouth though, I realized what I had done. My eyes went wide and I stared at Ina. She just slightly cocked her head to the side and smiled.

"Us?" She asked me simply.

I sat there for a moment before answering. I wasn't sure if I should come clean or not. But I had already toyed with the idea of telling her the truth anyway, so I decided to be honest, all the way.

"Well, yes. Us." I said and smirked.

Ina smiled wider. "So are you saying you're a part of the superhero movement?" She asked.

I sighed. "I feel like you already know the answer to that." I told her, not wanting to admit it out loud, again.

Ina chuckled a little bit. "This is serious development in your therapy, Dave. This information could be the critical link I've been missing." She said and I wasn't sure if she was being serious or sarcastic with that smile playing at her lips.

"It probably is." I said, sarcastically, making Ina laugh.

"I don't understand why people don't disclose all their thoughts and information with me, Dave. You understand I have doctor patient confidentiality, don't you?" She asked me, looking hopeful.

"Well yeah, but it's only as long as I'm not a threat to myself or others right?" I asked her in return.

"Well, yes. But you aren't hurting people, you're protecting people. That's the way I see it anyway. There has to be a balance of violence to achieve the desired peaceful result in my opinion. And like I said earlier, you're doing the community a service, it's no different than a police officer going out on the job." She told me.

"So you're condoning me going out and attacking bad guys in hand to hand combat?" I stated, more than asked her.

"Well…" She trailed off for a moment and looked down at her notes. "You aren't doing this all the time are you?" She asked me.

I paused before answering. "I go out almost every night to do this. I'm Kick Ass. The people deserve to be safe from predators and me not going out and preventing them from committing their crimes isn't helping the innocent people, it's hurting them." I told her, and the memory of what Mindy had told me before she had left popped into my brain.

"You're Kick Ass." She said in disbelief, her eyes wide.

"Yep. That's my big secret. It's also the reason my dad is dead. And the reason I beat up Todd for telling the Mother Fucker who I am, and who my dad was. If Todd didn't tell him, he may have never known, and my dad might be alive today." I told her matter-of-factly.

She sat there for a minute and her wide eyes slowly changed over to ones filled with sorrow. "You really do blame yourself for your father's death then." She asked me, appearing heartbroken.

I bit my lip and answered her. "If I wasn't Kick Ass, there should be no reason for him to be dead."

Ina once again stared at me. But then she rose up from her couch, and walked over to the window looking out over the city. I watched her look out at the sun set and the many buildings around the one we were in. She stayed silent for a while before she turned around to talk to me.

"I'm conflicted, Dave." She said, looking at me, dejected. I knew she had more to say so I let her finish. "My training tells me to be honest with you, to not ignore the facts, and to help you see the truth." She paused again and turned back to look out the window as she finished talking. "But I don't want to tell you you're right."

I sighed, looking down at the books on her coffee table and picking one up, idly. "But it is true." I said, my voice cracking at the end.

She snapped back around and came right over to my chair. She looked like she wanted to say something, but I cut her off.

"But I'm not going to stop what I'm doing. Yes, being Kick Ass caused my father's death. But I didn't become Kick Ass to… Kill him." I said, having trouble with my words. I clenched the book that was in my hands, and looked up at Ina. "I became Kick Ass to stop that from happening. Me not being Kick Ass is a white flag. I am not going to let the criminal scum of this city win, just because I feel afraid, or guilty, or inadequate. That's why I'm here! That's why I'm talking with you about it right now! I am fixing all those problems. Because I don't need to be a badass, I just need to be brave." I told her, quoting what Mindy had told me.

Ina had stood there while I reached my revelation, and as I started getting more passionate, she slowly started to smile. "Dave…" She trailed off, and looked off to the side for a moment before collecting her thoughts. "That was perhaps the most beautiful breakthrough I've ever seen."

I laughed, really laughed, and soon, Ina joined me. We were clutching our sides before we were done. All the tension and heavy emotions finally out of our systems, leading the way to lighter and happier ones.

Ina told me she didn't, quote, "Condone" my Kick Ass behavior, but that she would allow it as long as I stayed in touch with her and told her about any struggles or thoughts I had about it. She told me she was worried about me going out alone, but understood that if I were to keep doing it, it was the only way.

I only have one more week of sessions with her though, so she suggested that we become close friends outside of the clinic. She told me, "I want to be like your Alfred or Aunt May." She laughed at herself, but I felt both overwhelmingly grateful and flattered.

I honestly feel so much better. I'm not over my father's death, but I'm over the worst of it anyway. Ina truly does care about me, and I feel like I finally have someone to really care about again. I even told her how she reminds me of my mother and she smiled telling me that being close to your psychiatrist after reaching your breakthrough is normal. But then she added that she felt motherly towards me anyway, despite it being against the psychiatrist's code to develop any emotional attachments with a patient.

* * *

So Dave get's his own chapter (probably ever in this story). And things are looking up for Dave. I'm not sure if I'm totally in love with it, but I'm satisfied anyway.

Not much else to say but please review, and all that jazz :)


	12. Chapter 12

School's back in session, and it couldn't come at a better fucking time. I've paid closer attention to the Travis family tradition of watching the news than I've ever done since coming to Cooper. And I'm still having trouble shaking the desire to make a quick run to New York to pick up my costume and katanas.

So going back to the scheduled diversion of classes, pep rallies, and football games will hopefully be enough to curtail my interests in bringing Hit Girl to Texas. Besides it's going to be better than back in New York, this time I have friends, real friends, and Patrick.

He actually offered to carry my books for me on the first day back. I said no of course, I'm pretty damn capable of carrying a couple of books to class. But maybe that's another one of those southern things, because Kim and Kaylee gave we a weird look when I declined his offer. But maybe it's a girl thing, I don't know.

All I know is that I've been very self-conscious. I know more people were looking at me at the start of the school year, walking to class beside Patrick, then when I first came a few months ago. I'd have figured in a town this small people would have known by now about Patrick and I being a thing.

Either way, Kaylee, Kim, and I are now sitting at a different table during lunch. Patrick and his friends, who are seniors this year, are our new tablemates. But for the most part they haven't been as friendly as the tablemates Kim and Kaylee had before. They haven't been rude, but they haven't been very inviting either.

I'm still training for rodeo competitions too. After school and on the weekends Patrick and I head out to the corral and I take Dallas out for a spin. I've gotten my times down even lower and Patrick has hinted that he might start teaching me how to do bronc riding, which is the first step towards bull riding. Boo fucking ya.

"You're gettin' really good with Dallas." Patrick told me the other day.

"You would think I grew up on a ranch, wouldn't you?" I teased him as we were sitting in the shade of a spare couple of trees.

"If I didn't know better. I'd say yes." Patrick replied with his customary southern drawl that was really starting to make me feel all kinds of wonderful anytime I heard it.

I smiled up at him and he leaned in towards me. I could feel a chill run through my arms, despite the perforating Texas heat. Patrick was staring right at my lips, which were now hanging open in anticipation. I've discovered after our several makeout sessions that this is the best part of kissing someone. The anticipation makes you feel all tingly and makes my heart flip around like crazy.

Like the many times before, our lips met and a soft warmth grew in my stomach, overflowing up into my chest, constricting me in just the right way. Patrick's lips were pressing and soft, opening just the tiniest bit. His hands fell to my waist, pulling me impossibly closer to him.

We stayed this way for who knows how long. But eventually all good things come to an end and Patrick and I parted, slowly and unwilling to be the first to break away. The after part of kissing is equally as good. My head swims and I can hardly catch my breath. And I slowly come down from a high that makes me start to understand a junkie's addiction.

It's hard to focus on training after such an exhilarating activity, but somehow Patrick and I manage. We practiced some roping skills on bales of hay, our usual practice starter to get warmed up. After acing ten throws in a row from a stationary position, I brought Dallas in and practiced with her, since a well-trained horse is half the battle.

Next Patrick brought in a goat to practice on. It wasn't too long before I was acing each attempt at that as well. The trouble started when Patrick brought in a new horse to try tying. On my first attempt I was thrown off of Dallas and tumbled to the ground, landing on my ass, quite unceremoniously. But I got back up on Dallas and tried again.

This damn horse was something else. By the end of our training I'd only roped him successfully, once. I was grumbling words that would turn Jennie and Will ghostly white and I was covered in a mixture of sweat, dust, and horse hair. Patrick called out that it was time to put up Dallas and rub her down.

So I led her to her stall as I rubbed my sore ass. I was starting to brush Dallas as Patrick came up to help. He could tell I was upset from my failed attempts this afternoon and tried to cheer me up.

"You did really good today. Everyone hits a hard spot." He told me. This didn't make me feel better. Someone acknowledging my shortcomings just pisses me off.

"Well that stupid horse is not going to know what hit him tomorrow." I told him curtly.

"I'm sure he will." Patrick said, and his hands found their way to my waist again. I turned to him when I heard the familiar sound of tires rolling down the dirt road that meant Will was there to pick me up. So Patrick and I unwillingly separated and I finished rubbing down Dallas before giving Patrick a short peck goodbye.

Will and I made idle chit chat about Will's day at work, but he doesn't say much. But I have noticed in the past few days that Will has looked more concerned than normal.

I want to ask, but I have a sinking feeling what's making him so worried. And my suspicions are usually confirmed during the nightly news. Tonight wasn't an exception. Once again useless violence has plagued Mooresburg, the town that has the hospital Will works at. I know it's what Will has been facing and coming home to put on a brave face for.

By now I know that Kim is right. It's headed to Cooper, whatever it is.

* * *

Unfortunately, since Marty started school, I've only been able to see him a few times. And now my manager has put Brad on a different schedule so other than seeing Ina for the occasional lunch I've been on my own for the past few weeks.

But thankfully Ina asked me over for dinner tonight. "It's nothing romantic." She said, laughing at her own joke. "It's just that since your sessions are over now, I feel like we haven't spent a lot of time together other than our occasional lunch meetings and those are often so rushed, not to mention in public areas, that we don't get the chance to really talk." She told me.

I agreed. She'd wanted me to keep her posted about my Kick Ass duties, but it's hard to talk about it in the middle of a crowded Manhattan eatery. I was about to invent some sort of code to discuss it, but a dinner together should suffice.

Ina lived in a studio apartment on the upper east side of Manhattan, a couple blocks down from the Park Avenue Synagogue, the place of worship her family had attended for five generations. I had to be rung in, but I didn't mind, I liked knowing she was safer that way, not just anyone and their brother could get into the building.

I knew that Ina had money, she was a psychiatrist after all, but I had to admit that her apartment took me by surprise. It was huge, by New York standards anyway, and she had it furnished in what looked like the classier section of IKEA. Everything was open, from standing in the kitchen, I could see strait at her bed, which was up on a small platform from the rest of the space.

I could smell the tantalizing scent of food in the air as well, and I was instantly transported back to my grandmother's kitchen. "It smells great." I told her and she graciously thanked me.

"You can't beat great grandmother's lentils." She joked with me, inviting me to sit down at the dinner table. She served me heaping bowl of lentils and we dove in.

"So how is your double life going?" She asked me, taking the time to look up at me, while spooning the lentils in her mouth.

"It's okay. Nothing major going on yet. I've been doing some research though lately. I have to say you've inspired me to get more serious about my work." I told her.

"I've inspired you?" She asked me playfully.

"Well, after my little 'breakthrough' or whatever, yeah. Somehow I just didn't feel like I was doing enough to make a difference and I didn't really realize I could do more until you brought up those feelings in me again." I explained. I was thinking of when I first suited up and had high hopes, thinking I was going to go out and change the world. "Somehow I'd lost sight of the ideals and reasons for starting my journey as a superhero." I added, to clarify.

Ina smiled slightly and hmm'ed to herself. "So what does getting serious about your work entail?" She asked me.

"Well, I want to do something big again, to make New York safer for everyone. Not just take out a few petty thieves, but start working on a larger operation. I know that once you take one out another one pops up and takes its place, just like the purse snatchers, but it feels more rewarding, anyway." I explained.

"A larger operation? Like crime bosses and organized crime?" She asked me, starting to look worried.

"Yeah, that's what I mean." I confessed sheepishly. "I know it's not something I can do on my own though, so don't think I've lost it just yet." I defended myself, but in a light hearted manner.

"So where are you going to get your help from?" She asked me, looking a bit more relieved. I sighed, this was the problem. I could get as much dirt on the criminal operations as I wanted, but if I couldn't get people to help me, I couldn't do anything about it. There was no way I'd go through something like the D'Amico job solo (Mindy had done most of the groundwork there anyway), and the warehouse showdown with the Toxic Mega Cunts had taken the entire Justice Forever team.

Justice Forever was practically disbanded after ninety percent of the team was arrested after the police massacre thanks in part to the Mother Fucker and his team, and people who weren't a part of it were too scared of arrest to try going out on a caped crusade. So finding people to help me do something like what I was planning was going to be difficult.

"That's what's been holding me up. I'm having trouble finding people who want to help, or rather put on a costume." I told her, admitting my troubles. By now we had finished our soup and she took my empty bowl to dispose of in the sink. She motioned for our conversation to continue on in the living room area.

She took a seat in an armchair and I sat next to her on the couch. "So what are you planning to do?" She asked me.

"I don't know, I can try posting a meeting on the forums, but I doubt anyone would respond, other than the police." I answered, feeling negative.

"What about close friends? Are any of them other than, your now un-friend, Todd, superheroes? Have you asked them?" She asked me. I immediately thought of Mindy. If Mindy were around, I probably wouldn't have to bother asking anyone else for help. She had taken care of Rasul and his posse all on her own (other than some sharp shooting from Big Daddy towards the end).

But I didn't mention her, "Well, there's Marty and Brad. But Marty's too scared of jail to go out again, not to mention he's busy with school. And Brad's never been a superhero before. I'd have to put a lot of time in training him just so I could focus and be sure he wouldn't get killed on the job." I told her.

Ina furrowed her brows in the fashion she does when she's thinking and I stayed quiet to let her ponder. She came out of her reverie and responded: "What about the girl in the video? The one that saved you from death in that viral video?" She asked me.

I sighed and looked down at my hands. "I… I don't think she'll be able to help me." I said softly. My response, or maybe the way that I said it perked up her therapist radar and she sat up strait in her chair, crossing her legs like she always did in her office when she'd thought she was on to something.

"You don't? Why not?" She asked me, her voice soothing but I could tell she was turning this into a micro session.

"I have no idea where she is, or how to get a hold of her." I told her honestly.

"Have you ever worked with her other than the night of that video?" She asked me before adding on: "I have to admit that after you revealed yourself to me I became very interested in your alter ego and have done some research. I had seen the video before, but I watched it again and found it very… Disturbing to watch." She told me.

I chuckled. "Yeah, try being the one receiving all those blows." I told her sarcastically. Ina just raised her brows in surprise before giving me a patronizing look. So I answered her question. "Yes we've worked together…" I trailed off though. I can tell Ina my identity and all my personal info, but I have to be careful when it comes to Mindy. I'm sure she wouldn't be so forgiving if I revealed her alter ego to my therapist, doctor-patient confidentiality or not.

But I couldn't help but gush to Ina about how great she is. "She's amazing though. She's the real deal, I'm just… A dick in a wetsuit compared to her. She's been training since she was five." I could feel happiness starting to come over me, from talking up Mindy's talent and wondered for a moment why that was, but came back to the reality of the conversation.

"That's… Interesting." Was all Ina said, and she looked concerned.

"But it doesn't matter. I've wanted to talk with her for ages, but she's left the city. The NYPD aren't too happy with her, cause unlike the rest of us superheroes, she doesn't leave her enemies behind for the police to pick up. She just... Ends them." I explained.

Ina's eyebrows shot up further than I'd ever seen before, and her mouth actually gaped open a bit after my last statement. "Well maybe you shouldn't get help from her then, try to stay on the police's good side, okay?" She asked me.

"Of course, Ina." I replied, but smiled. I couldn't help but think Mindy would have found Ina's response hilarious and had some choice words to share.

Ina and I spent the next half hour discussing possibilities other than Mindy to help me in my quest and in the end I decided going to ask Marty and Brad couldn't hurt, they could just say no, but they could say yes. And there was no way I could do what I was planning on my own, so I will take all the help I can get.

* * *

_Once again, miracle of miracles, Dave's part is longer than Mindy's. But I think it's obvious as to why (if not I'm sorry). _

_Sorry if this chapter is kind of slow, but maybe you don't think it is, maybe it's just me cause I know what's coming next. And it should be pretty darn great if I do say so myself. _

_Also I added in some Patrick and Mindy fluff, even though it's pretty minuscule, but I figured Mindy going gaga over kissing a guy (no matter who he is) is sort of out of character. I figured she'd enjoy it, say so, and move on._

_Welp, please tell me your thoughts, suggestions, and so on and please leave a review :) (also I've decided from here out to make my author notes in italic so their easier to separate from the story)_


	13. Chapter 13

The good news is I've found more distractions from wanting to drive my Ducati over to Greenville and start cracking skulls. The bad news is it's the school dance. That in itself I can handle. But Cooper High thinks it's just too adorable to not have its homecoming theme be a good ol' fashioned hoedown.

I am not shitting. My first high school dance is going to have square dancing. If Cooper gets anymore quaint we might just become a living museum.

But Kim and Kaylee are giddy with joy over the idea. So we went to the only store in town with formal wear to shop around for dresses this week. Thankfully we aren't required to wear hoedown attire to this dance, just the theme and activities are hoedown oriented. So I still get to wear something semi-normal. Not that layers of tulle are normal for me, but definitely more normal than cutoff shorts and a plaid shirt tied around my waist.

Kim was the only one to find a dress she was happy with though, so Kaylee suggested we travel to Greenville over the weekend to go to the mall. Which half thrilled and half annoyed me. Here I am trying to forget the whole problem brewing in this town and she wants to drag us over there.

At least no one was shot this time, and we all have dresses now. I found a deep purple dress I was really into, but I'm still afraid to associate myself with my signature hue so I opted for a light blue one instead. It was kind of plain, but I'm not one for flashy so I liked the simpleness of it. It reminded me of a fifties cocktail dress cause it was so simple, had a square neck line, and cinched at the waist.

Kim got a golden yellow one that draped around her with sequins all over it. I thought it was verging on gaudy, but Kaylee adored it so I figured it was okay. Kaylee's dress was nice, if not very southern chic, and was a floral print.

It amuses me how Kim and Kaylee can become so obsessed with a single night, but I suppose the same could be said for me. Just instead of ball gowns and dates, I'm freaking out over bullets and security cameras.

But thankfully between this dance, my rodeo practice, and my time spent alone with Patrick, I've been able to keep myself from dwelling too much on Greenville and the trouble brewing over there.

Nighttime is the only time I can't stop thinking about the crime problem that may or may not be headed strait for Cooper. I'm alone, and it feels like both the attic space above my closet where I've hidden my guns and the small cubby I made inside my box spring where I've hidden my knife collection are calling out for me to take them out for a ride.

But I've been good. I haven't messed with either since the night after the shooting in Greenville. Now the problem is my subconscious. I've been having really fucked up dreams for the past few days, thus looking like shit due to lack of good sleep.

Just last night's dream was weird. All of them usually involve me being Hit Girl, but last night's really freaked me out. It didn't make much sense either, but dreams rarely do. It was as if all the superheroes in the world were all living in some community together, and I mean both superheroes with superpowers and superheroes like Dave and myself.

Anyway, we were all living in some giant facility and I can't remember all the details anymore, but I had found out some sort of conspiracy, or bad guy's plans, but I didn't want to tell anyone cause I didn't know who to trust. I was getting information out of Batman when another superhero (can't remember who it was anymore) interrupted us and Batman covered for me by pretending we were getting involved romantically rather than me asking him what he knew about the bad guy's plans.

I don't know whether to be weirded out about that or not since daddy's costume was eerily similar to Batman's but that wasn't even the part that freaked me out. So Batman and I started working together and were going up against the bad guy, but somehow the rest of the superheroes found out too and we all went to confront the bad guy together.

The big battle ensued, and the group of superheroes and I fought off the peons before getting the chance to go up against the leader. I was the first to get the chance to take her, and started fighting hand to hand, and I was winning. But then out of nowhere, she used some sort of telekinetic super powers and rendered me useless. I could only stand there as she took over the world and enslaved the rest of the superheroes. In the end I woke up in a sweat after all the other superheroes gave me dirty looks for failing and were stripped of all their rights.

I don't know what it means, but it's made me triple my workout time. Enough to even cut back on rodeo training with Patrick, just to make myself feel a little better. It reminded me of when I was up against Mother Russia and was seconds away from death my strangulation. I had to rely on pure adrenaline to save my ass.

I never want to feel that way again. Even if I never resume my Hit Girl status, I will train my ass off to know that I could never be beat like I was in my dream.

I think Jennie and Will are starting to worry about me though since they've both mentioned how tired I look and have told me repeatedly that if I ever need to talk about something that's bothering me they are more than happy to help.

But I'm not afraid of crime coming to Cooper, maybe what I'm afraid of is that if I don't do something about it, everything that goes wrong will be my fault for not stopping it from happening.

* * *

I invited Marty and Brad over under the guise of trying out the new Grand Theft Auto that Brad bought (ironic game for a superhero to play, I know). But what I really invited them over for was to try and convince them to help me in the big takedown I was working on.

I had been doing some research lately and discovered a spike in criminal activity taking place in Little Italy. I had even done some stakeout undercover work in the area just because the crimes were so interesting.

What I'd found through preliminary research was a string of carefully executed murders happening around the area. Several small business owners as well as seemingly innocent people had been gruesomely murdered in their homes, businesses, and even in alleyways. I figured if they were connected it had to be a new crime family stepping up to the plate in the absence of Frank and Chris D'Amico.

Perhaps it was the doing of Frank's brother Ralph, but I won't know for sure until I can get someone to talk. My plan was to infiltrate and take down what I was pretty sure was a prostitution ring running under the front of a souvenir shop. Those sorts of operations often have a boss who is in the know of the other crime bosses in the area, if it isn't being run by one itself.

But I couldn't do it on my own, which is where groveling for Marty and Brad's help comes into play.

"Nuh, uh. No way dude." Marty told me flat out. "I am not going to jail just so you can feel like a big shot."

"That's not why I'm doing this, Marty. I'm trying to help people." I explained. I thought if I could just convince Marty to come back, both of us together could convince and train Brad into doing it.

"You can do whatever you want, just leave me out of it." Marty told me, focusing on the game. "Shit! I just ran over a fucking hiker! This is awesome!" He yelled excitedly at the TV screen as his ATV ran over a pedestrian.

"Marty, you weren't even arrested the first time. Plus your dad's a mega lawyer, you're not going to spend more than a few hours in jail if you even get arrested." I pleaded, trying to bring him back from the game.

"Dude, I have school and shit to worry about." He told me as he started moving his controller about wildly in an attempt to make his character drive around a curve.

"It's just one night, and a few hours of training a week." I responded.

"Fuck!" Marty exclaimed as his vehicle fell off the edge of the mountain he was driving up. He then turned his attention back to me. "Look Dave, I know this shit's important to you or whatever, but I'm not making a career out of it. Seriously both times we saw major action I about pissed myself. I doubt I'm going to be any help to you anyway." He told me.

"I'm not even asking you to be a bad ass, Marty, just that you've got my back." I responded, trying to win him over.

Marty sighed and rolled his eyes. "What exactly is it you're wanting to do anyway?" He asked me.

"It's like what we did in Justice Forever, that one night. I'm trying to take down a prostitution ring in Little Italy. But it's mainly to get more information." I explained, not going too much into detail.

"Shit Dave, Stars and Stripes did most of the work that night!" Marty exclaimed. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"No, besides, I've put in a lot more training since then. I'm pretty sure I can handle it as long as I've got one or two more guys to distract some fighters." I told him, looking at Brad as well.

Brad saw my look and turned to watch Marty's reaction. "So I'm bait then? Thanks." Marty responded.

"Does that mean you'll do it?" I asked him, hopefully.

Marty groaned and gave me a look of contempt. "Fine, whatever, I'll help you." He said, but I could tell he kind of wanted to in the first place.

I smirked, "Great! So Brad, would you like to join Justice Forever?" I asked casually.

"Are you serious?" He asked me, incredulous.

"Yeah, I can train you for a bit, just so you're not dead in the water, so to speak." I offered.

But what would my alter ego be? I can't come up with a superhero identity on my own. Brad said.

"Well, who's your favorite superhero? I don't think it's too hard to see that Battle Guy is based off of Captain America." I told him, glancing over towards Marty and giving him a condescending look.

"As long as you don't name yourself Ass Kicker, it will be fine." Marty added.

"And don't lie about your parents being murdered after going to the opera." I said, teasing Marty.

Brad stood for a minute, looking ruminatively back and forth between Marty and I before saying anything. "Do I even want to know?" He asked us.

"Just Todd and Marty's failed attempts at being bad asses." I answered. It was Marty's turn to shoot me a look, and Brad chuckled.

"Anyway, your favorite superhero, who is it?" Marty asked Brad.

"Well, I don't know. I'm still not a comic buff, so it would still be based off the movies I've seen." Brad answered, pondering his reply. "I really like Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. is such a cocky showoff it's hilarious. But I was also a fan of Wolverine, regeneration would come in handy, but it's not like I'd have that ability in real life, but those claws would look bad ass."

"I don't think that having Wolverine's knuckle claws would actually be handy in a fight though, I don't actually want you killing anyone." I told him. "And you'd have to get too close for comfort to use them effectively anyway." I added.

"Oh! I've got it…" Brad exclaimed, getting worked up. "Thor." He told us, pausing for effect, and starting to use his hands in his conversation, a sure sign he was getting excited. "Think about it, I could have a huge meat mallet to throw at people!"

"I don't really think throwing it would be effective either, but you could just hit people with it." I responded, liking the idea.

"Yeah, and you could have a taser too, for the lightning effect." Marty added. I chuckled to myself thinking of what Mindy would say, especially after her response to my own taser experience.

"Okay, I like it." I told him. "Now you just need a name."

"Oh, uh… Thor Guy?" He supplied hopefully. Marty and I cracked up.

"Ha, ha, Thor Guy?" Marty asked incredulously, between laughing.

"I'll take that as a no then." Brad said, deadpan.

"You're going to need to be a little more original than that." I told him, calming down.

"Fine." He said in a huff, but then paused to think about it. "Well, I could wear an outfit like his, like amour. Kind of like a knight. Knight Guy!" Brad mused.

"Um, closer, but no cigar." I told him.

"That sounds lame dude." Marty told him, not bothering to sugarcoat it.

"Okay, okay." Brad replied, annoyed.

"I like the idea of Knight-something though." I supplied, hopefully.

"Okay… Knight God? Cause Thor's a Norse god?" He asked us.

"Now you're just verging on narcissistic." Marty replied.

"Fine! Do you have any better ideas?" Brad asked him.

"Knight Rider?" Marty answered, laughing to himself. Both Brad and I shot him a look.

"He needs a name, Marty. Can you please be a little helpful?" I asked him.

"Okay, okay." He said, recollecting himself. "Knightmare? Knightmade?"

"No! I like Knightmare, it'll strike fear into the hearts of evildoers." Brad replied, excitedly.

"I've got it!" I exclaimed, loudly. "Nordic Knightmare." I paused for their response.

Brad smiled wide and Marty was slowly shaking his head in agreement. "Yes! Yes! I love it! Nordic Knightmare." Brad said, rolling the name around in his mouth, to feel it out.

"Dude, it's perfect." Marty agreed.

"Okay, now you just need to get your equipment, and start training." I told him. Marty and Brad groaned in unison.

* * *

_I've been waiting to post this for a while. I just love writing Marty Dialogue, for some reason (and I've also discovered I often accidentally write his name Mary when typing really fast, just found that kind of funny). I'd written out the exchange between Marty, Dave, and Brad way back when I first started working on the story and brainstorming, so it's nice to finally put it in the story. _

_Also, I actually had the dream Mindy's describing a few weeks ago and woke up thinking, 'I may be getting a little too obsessed with Kick Ass and this story' But I thought it worked well in the progress of Mindy's journey so I added it in._

_Also be expecting some interesting Mindy moments at the hoedown homecoming!_

_Well, here's the part where you guys leave me responses, and reviews! ;)_


	14. Chapter 14

I felt weird, sitting in my room, in that blue dress, waiting for a boy to come pick me up. Kim was down the hall, primping and re-primping, as she had been doing since nine this morning. It only took me an hour to take a shower, dry my hair, slap on a minimal amount of makeup, and put a dress on. What on earth could take Kim all damn day?

I felt like I was her date rather than James, or was it Billy? No, Kaylee's date was Billy, so Kim's was… Oh, I don't even remember his name. Shit.

Anyway, Patrick came calling at 5:30 sharp, shitty corsage in hand. Jennie and Will made a big deal out of him putting the dumb thing on me and took about a zillion photos. Patrick and I were about to head out the door when Kim's date knocked and we were forced to stay and take a zillion more photos with Kim and her date, whatever his name was.

But we were driving to the big event separately. So, Patrick and I climbed up into his big ass truck (and I mean seriously, this thing was a fucking tank) and drove off towards where the event was being held. Ironically Cooper homecoming wasn't even in Cooper, the school rented some barn in Mooresburg, the town Will worked in.

While it was in a barn, thankfully we weren't totally roughing it with dirt floors. It was a barn technically, but really it was an event center. There were bales of hay scattered around though, since our 'adorable' little theme was Texas Hoedown. And most unfortunate of all was that a live band was set up to play music for the evening, including a banjo, a fiddle, and a bass player all plucking away for hours.

I've tried and tried, since coming to Texas to give country music a chance, but the banjos and twangy voices just make me grit my teeth and gives me a headache. So a whole night of inescapable hoedown music was just something I had to suffer through.

Patrick taught me how to square dance when they were playing the traditional square dance music, and despite the music I had fun. Kim and Kaylee were never far off, so when Patrick wasn't around, I had the two of them to distract me from the twangy music.

The whole thing is blown way out of proportion by the media in my opinion. It was fun, but not the best night of my life. I wasn't fucking Cinderella. Although I think Kim and Kaylee thought they were. Around eight, Patrick asked me if I wanted to leave to do something more exciting, and imagining the two of us teaching each other's tongues the tango was more than motivation enough to leave early.

"You're leavin' already?" Kaylee asked me, pouting.

"Girl, you know why she's leavin' early." Kim told Kaylee, before I had the chance to respond myself. "Patrick's takin' her out to the Reservoir." Kim added, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively in my direction.

I hadn't actually been to the Reservoir with Patrick yet. The Reservoir was well known around the teen population as the place to go 'park' with your significant other with plenty of privacy. Since Patrick and I were usually on his family's vast ranch anyway, we'd had plenty of time to do the sort of things the Cooper Reservoir was famous for.

So I wasn't sure if we should even bother going to the reservoir when we could just go somewhere on Patrick's property to do the same thing. But Patrick did in fact, take me to the infamous Cooper Reservoir.

When he stopped, putting his big ass truck in park, he turned to me and I smiled, feeling the heat fill my body like it usually did when we were about to kiss. Patrick reached up and brushed the hair from my face, before taking both of my hands in his.

"Mindy…" He started talking, looking deep into my eyes. "I love spendin' time with you. I've never met a woman that's learned rodeo so fast in my life." He said with his southern drawl, inching closer toward me on the truck seat.

I bit my lip, anticipating his kiss. "I've never been with a girl like you 'fore." He continued, reaching back up to cup my face in his hand. I could barely breathe and he tilted his head down to capture my lips.

He kissed me for only a moment though, before breaking away and looking back into my eyes. "I hope I don't sound too forward but…" And he trailed off, glancing down.

My heartbeat started going faster than it had ever done before. I felt my face grow hot and my breath caught in my throat. Fucking A, he wants to fuck me. I thought to myself. My excitement lead to second-guessing myself, and I started to wonder if I should sleep with him or not.

We had our first date five months ago, and I did really like him. But…

Dave flashed in my head and I felt guilty. Why was I thinking of him when perfectly gorgeous and polite, Patrick was right in front of me, wanting to fuck my brains out? I shook the thoughts off. Besides, I should just get it over with. Those bitches back in New York won't have anything to make fun of me about if I ever go back. Not that they would have anyway, after what I'd done to them that caused me to be suspened.

"Yes?" I asked Patrick, urging him to ask me, as I'd made up my mind. I was going to do it. Who cared if it was cliché to do it in the cab of his truck on homecoming night at the Cooper Reservoir?

Patrick smiled, "I think I love you."

I sat for a minute in shock. We haven't dropped the L word yet. And here I was thinking we were going to have sex.

"I just feel so different with you. I want…" He trailed off and moved even closer to me. His hands fell to my waist, and his face was centimeters from my own, his eyes boring deep into mine. His fingers were moving around and his hands moved to the small of my back, and the warmth and shortness of breath started coming back.

"I want it too." I said in a burst and pressed myself against him, throwing him back against the seat. I was on top of him now and my fingers were curled up in his hair, pulling him as close to me as physically possible.

His hands were rubbing up and down my back, before slipping down my ass, pushing the edge of my dress up, and softly grabbing me. I couldn't help it, it felt amazing and I started to grind against him.

He'd taken off his tie and unbuttoned the first few buttons on his shirt before we'd even got into the truck to leave, so I sat up and went to work on the remaining buttons. His hands moved around to my front now, and rubbed on the outside of my thighs, since I was straddling him now. He stopped though, to help me get his shirt off his body and I was left to play with his bare chest. I rubbed it downward until I reached the edge of his pants before looking up at his face.

He had a smile playing on his parted lips and was already slightly winded. He was looking at where my hands were right above his crotch and I smirked. He looked up at my face since I had stalled in my movements, and he smiled. I leaned down on top of him again and pressed my lips against his in a passion.

His hands found the zipper to my dress and slowly pulled it down, pulling back the sides of my dress, revealing the band of my bra. I sat up quickly and helped him pull down the dress from my shoulders before I flipped backwards to pull the rest of it off my legs. It joined his shirt in the floor of his truck.

Patrick then leaned forward towards me and his hands found their way to my tits. He grabbed each one gently through my bra, and I let out a soft whimper of pleasure. He smiled and started squeezing them in his hands before I ripped my bra down and revealed them to him, fully.

His eyes went wide for a second before he cupped them in his hands again and he reached up with his thumb and forefinger to pinch my nipples.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, loving his touch and movements. I had my legs wrapped around his torso, and as he went to work with my boobs I started to grind against him again.

Then all of a sudden, Patrick sat up and pulled off his pants in a rush. I was pushed up against the passenger door, and sat in surprise at he pulled open his glove box and retrieved a recognizable foil square. I grinned and snatched it out of his hands.

He smiled too, and reached down to pull off my underwear, discarding with our other clothing piling up in the floor. He then awkwardly maneuvered himself to take off his own underwear and we both sat for a second in complete nakedness.

I had a flash of naked Dave pop into my head, but then I ripped open the condom. Patrick guided my hands around his dick as we put it on him together. He then moved us around to position himself on top of me and slowly inched it inside me.

I bit my lip as I felt a stretching and Patrick moved in and out, slowly, creating a rhythm. He was still perched above me and I wanted to pull him down to kiss me, but I wasn't sure if he had to stay up there to do it correctly. So I laid there, letting him pick up speed.

I felt the strangeness subside and a warm clenching feeling took over. I moaned from the weird pleasure of the sensation and he looked down at me, huffing at his effort. He started to pick up his pace and clenched his eyes closed. He thrust hard into me a few times before a warmth originated inside me and he stopped thrusting.

Patrick slowly pulled out and away. He then rolled down his window and ripped the condom off his dick, throwing it out the window. I could still see some of the cum on his dick and was about to ask about it when he leaned over again to pull a tissue out of the glove box and he wiped it off.

I sat there for a minute, stunned at what I'd just done. Patrick didn't say anything for a while but then pulled himself into a regular sitting position, so I followed suit. I wanted to break the awkward silence, but wasn't sure what to say. Thankfully Patrick finally said something, still catching his breath.

"This is the best homecoming I've ever had." He said, looking over at me and smiling slightly.

I bit my lip and replied. "Your welcome."

He laughed. "I'm glad you came to Cooper when you did."

.

.

.

When Patrick dropped me off at home, I was glad I decided against putting my hair in an updo since when I'd put my clothes back on and tried to make myself look like a person who hadn't just had sex in a truck cab, I discovered my hair to be a mess. I ran my fingers through it a couple of times and thought it looked okay, not perfect, but could pass for making out, rather than having sex.

But when I got home, the only person home was Nick. He was sitting in the kitchen, eating a bowl of ice cream and saw me as soon as I walked through the door.

"They aren't here." He said as I glanced over at him, surprised.

"What?" I asked him, taking a seat opposite of him at the table.

"They're at the hospital. They were worried about you though, cause you weren't answering your phone." Nick told me, pretty matter-of-factly considering he'd just told me the Travis family was at the hospital.

"What? Why are they at the hospital?" I asked, panic rising inside of me.

"There was a shooting at homecoming." Nick said, his voice even, as he plopped another spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. My eyes went wide with shock and terror.

Shit! Fucking! Fucker! Tunk!

After losing my mind momentarily, I broke my recent vow and let Hit Girl come back. I calmed myself down and asked Nick for more information.

"What happened? Is Kim okay?" I asked, trying to remain calm and in control to gain information.

"Yeah, she's okay. Her boyfriend isn't though." Nick answered, picking his bowl up to stick his head in and start licking the melted ice cream out of it.

I snapped and lifted my hand down to snatch the bowl out of his hands and flung it across the kitchen, shattering it against the refrigerator.

"Nick! What. Happened." I asked him, standing up and leaning on the table and using my most effective interrogation maneuvers.

They worked, as I knew they would, and Nick shrunk back in his chair, fear written all over his face. I toned it back a little: afraid I might make him piss his pants, but stayed in position.

"I don't know, there was a shooting and Kim called dad, and they told me to stay behind for when you got home." Nick whimpered. I stood up and sighed.

"Come on, we need to find your sister." I told him and grabbed his hand, dragging him outside. Once outside, I realized the hospital was one town over, and I had no ride. So I dragged Nick back inside and took both his shoulders and looked him deep in the eyes, turning on the scare factor again.

"Look, I am about to do something that you are never going to tell anyone about. Ever." I told him, tightening my grip on his shoulders when I said the word ever. "Understood?" I asked, for clarification.

He looked terrified. He nodded his head slowly.

"No. Tell me you will never tell any one about this." I said and noticed the broken ice cream bowl behind him. "Including what just happened between us, understood?"

He nodded his head vigorously, "Yes. Yes, I won't tell anyone, ever, I promise."

"Good." I said and turned to run up the stairs. I burst into my room and pushed the mattress off he box spring to access the space I'd cut into it to hide my knives.

I ran back down the stairs and found that Nick hadn't moved from the spot I'd left him. "Come on." I told him and we exited the house, locking it behind ourselves.

I could tell Nick was curious as to what was going on, but he was too scared of my strange and frightening behavior to say anything. We walked for about fifteen minutes before curiosity got the better of him.

"Are we walking all the way to Mooresburg?" He squeaked, and cringed as if I was going to hit him. I sighed.

"No." I said as we reached the edge of town. I turned to the left and walked into the wooded area there. Nick lingered behind and I turned back to him. "Come here!" I commanded him, and he obediently followed me.

"What are we doing, then?" Nick asked me, still frightened.

"We are taking, this, to Mooresburg." I said as I reached my destination and flung the tarp off my custom purple Ducati.

* * *

_I wrote this on Sunday and was so excited with it I wanted to post it right away, but I held off. Hence Why i've posted chapters every day recently lol._

_I originally was just going to make this a short piece about Mindy's homecoming and the 'events' that unfolded afterwards with Patrick, with a part of Dave's story wedged in afterwards. But I decided to go ahead and put the whole experience of the evening up and put Dave's part in the next chapter._

_Also, like when Mindy was describing kissing Patrick, I imagined she'd be pretty to the point about sleeping with him, so that's why it's written the way it is :)_

_I think this is the most exciting part of the story so far, but that's just my opinion..._

_Please let me know your thoughts, and please review for me :) Thanks for reading!_


	15. Chapter 15

"Here, put this on." I said, handing Nick my helmet, trying to get him moving. He was staring at my bike, confusion and awe written on his face.

He snapped back to reality at the sound of my voice and pulled the helmet on his head so fast that he accidentally hit himself with it. I rolled my eyes and held back the urge to laugh.

I pushed my bike away from the tree it was beside and climbed on top of it. I was about to kick off and go when I noticed Nick had still not gotten on the back of it. I turned my head to look at him, "Well, get on the back, come on!" I told him, still using my fear tactics on him.

He scrambled to get up on the back but was too short to get up on his own, so I had to help him climb up. After he'd gotten up and situated himself, I turned back to him, "Hold on to me, this may be rough."

Then I pealed out of the area and sped down the road towards Mooresburg. Shit it felt amazing. I'd forgotten how awesome it was to hunker down on my Ducati and let the wind blow my hair. I felt Nick's hands clench tighter around my waist and was reminded of my purpose, so I drove fast, but carefully.

I was up to 90 miles per hour when I passed the turn into Patrick's ranch and I noticed for the split second I passed it, that his truck had parked in the entrance. I thought I saw him standing by the mailbox, but I was going by so fast I couldn't be sure.

I decided to park my Ducati a few blocks away from the hospital in another wooded area. I pulled the tarp over it again and turned to Nick before we walked towards the hospital. "Remember what we talked about before coming over here." I warned him, giving him a watered down death glare.

He nodded his head earnestly and I turned to walk towards the hospital. When we got to the front desk I asked for Kim Travis.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but I don't have a Kim Travis in the system." The nurse said, giving me a rueful smile. I looked down at Nick and he pressed up against the counter.

"We're here for her boy friend, I don't know his name, but he was shot at homecoming." Nick said, hopefully.

"Oh, lord have mercy, you poor little things, the Cooper homecoming group is on floor three." She told us, and we headed upstairs.

As soon as we stepped out of the elevator there were police officers standing everywhere. Plus most of Cooper High was milling about also.

My heart was beating in my chest in fear and I pushed my way through the crowd. Suddenly a hand grabbed me from behind and I was being tugged backwards. I was about to flip whoever it was over my shoulder when I turned to see it was Kaylee.

She looked horrible. Her mascara was gunked up around her eyes and her eyes and cheeks were red. You could tell she'd been blowing her nose and that the makeup she'd so painstakingly applied earlier in the afternoon had been almost entirely wiped off.

"Mindy!" Kaylee cried as she crushed into me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and pulling close for a hug. She was sniffling, but not full on bawling at this point so I pat her on the back, reassuringly, before pulling her away.

"Kaylee, is Kim okay? Where is she? And the Travis'?" I asked her, trying to remain calm when my mind was racing at the possibilities.

"No, Kim is NOT okay." Kaylee said.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked, piping up and starting to look worried.

"No, she's not hurt or anything, she's totally distraught!" Kaylee responded.

"But she's not injured?" I asked for clarification.

"No, she's fine. But Jeremy's head was…" Kaylee trailed off into full blown tears and wailing. I was at a loss. I'd never comforted anyone before.

I reached out to her awkwardly and tried to pat her on the back again. Kaylee responded by burying her face in my chest and sobbing.

"Um, there, there, it's going to be okay." I said, trying to calm her down.

"Nick? What on earth are you doing here? How did you get here?" From behind me came the tired voice of Jennie Travis. I turned around to look at her.

"Um…" Nick trailed off and looked up at me. This alerted Jennie to my presence and her face full of confusion and worry softened to compassion.

"Oh, Mindy." Jennie said, and came to wrap her arms around both Kaylee and I. Kaylee composed herself and detached from my after Jennie let go.

"How'd you get here, honey?" Jennie asked me, rubbing my hair slightly, trying to comfort me.

"Nick and I took a cab." I told her, shooting Nick a quick look afterwards.

"Well, I know you're worried, but you should have just called. Kim is fine. Shaken up, but fine." Jennie said, looking between Kaylee and I. "Come on, I'm sure she'd love to see you."

Jennie led us down the hall to a separate waiting room where Kim was sitting on a couch, her father's arms wrapped around her protectively. I noticed she had dried blood on her head and face. Two police officers were sitting across from her, asking questions.

I was apprehensive of interrupting, and nervous of the police noticing me at all. But Jennie spoke up. "Kim honey! Mindy's here!" She called out to her daughter, pushing Kaylee and I forward.

Kim's eyes went wide after glancing over in our direction. Kaylee let go of my arm, which she'd been clutching on to as if her life depended on it, and rushed over to Kim's side. I awkwardly followed, unsure of what to do, and keeping a watchful eye on the police sitting beside Kim.

"Oh God, Mindy! I'm so glad you left with Patrick!" Kim started, clearly trying to remain strong. "It was awful. These guys burst in with guns and started shooting people. They cornered me and Jeremy and aimed their guns at us." She started to lose it then and started sobbing out loud. "They shot and he jumped in front of me to save me!" She cried, burying her face in her hands.

Will tightened his grip on Kim's shoulders and whispered reassurances in her ear. I just stood there confused. Why? Why were these people doing this? Who are these jack offs?

"Jeremy's dead! They blew his head off!" Kim suddenly burst out, before collapsing into her father, sobbing.

Jennie gasped and Kaylee knelt beside Kim, rubbing her comfortingly, but crying herself. Jennie reached for me and hugged me. I wasn't prepared for this though, so I stood there for a minute before reciprocating the gesture.

"I, uh, think we got all the information we need miss. We'll leave you be now." One of the officers piped up, and then walked out. Leaving us alone. I watched them walk away, my mind reeling.

"Why? Why would someone do this, here? During homecoming?" I asked. I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to know why.

Everyone was silent for a while, and Kaylee stood up and came over to me. Jennie looked as if she were going to stop her, but then restrained herself before retreating to Kim.

Kaylee whispered in my ear, "It's because Jeremy was white." Kaylee told me then leaned back, waiting for my reaction.

No fucking way. Kim's date was killed for going to homecoming with a black girl? Are you fucking kidding me? Is this the KKK? The shock must have been evident on my face because Kaylee leaned back in.

"The police think the gang were trying to kill Kim, cause a few other… Black people were murdered tonight. But Jeremy jumped in front of Kim and took the blast." Kaylee added, her voice wavering.

"Do they know who did it?" I asked, whispering in return.

Kaylee paused and looked like she wasn't sure what to say. "No one knows for sure, but the police think it's a motorcycle gang. They burnt down the barn too. We were lucky to get out alive." She told me, her face falling and starting to whimper.

I stood there for a moment, letting it all sink in. I looked over at the Travis family, where all four of them were huddled together on the couch, surrounding Kim in love and protection. I then looked back to Kaylee, who was also looking over at them, holding back tears.

That's when I made up my mind. I'd been debating it on the drive over, especially since I'd already gotten my Ducati out and drove it over here. But looking at Kim and the people I had grown to love over the past few months, the people that took me in and cared for me, tried to shelter me from the violence because they cared about me, made the choice clear.

Hit Girl was back in business.

* * *

Brad and I were standing in the middle of an empty basketball court in a park not too far from my house on a bright and sunshiny morning. Well, Brad was bent over on his knees, wheezing, but we were in the park.

After convincing Brad to help me take on a prostitution ring in Little Italy, and coming up with a superhero persona for him, all that was left now, was the training. It was a Tuesday, so Marty had class, thus he wasn't able to join us, but Brad decided to change his work schedule and we were now spending almost all of our free time together, getting him in shape enough to not get killed on the mission.

So far we've met two times and neither have been very promising. But Brad hasn't given up, so that's something. He gets a little dejected at times, but I just remind him that I wasn't so great at first either. I had to train my ass off to get where I am now.

"You should be thankful I'm the one training you. Dude, if Hit Girl were training you, you might have died a few days ago." I told him, trying to pick his spirits up.

"So is she the one that trained you?" He asked me, between breaths.

"Yeah, she beat the shit out of me for weeks, and I still wasn't worth shit in the real world." I said, chuckling to myself. But then I noticed Brad's optimism draining and I hastily added, "But you're doing great. You're already in better shape than I was when I started with her. I couldn't even do chin-ups. You did what? Ten?" I asked him.

"Okay, so what next?" He asked me, obviously trying to just get the training over with.

"Well, I want to teach you some combat moves, but it's almost ten o'clock. So we should head somewhere people can't see us." I offered and we headed over to a shaded area, surrounded by thick trees.

"Show me the weapons you bought." I instructed him, as we situated ourselves in our hidden spot. He dug into the duffel bag he'd brought along and pulled out a very large and menacing looking metal meat mallet.

"Yeah? How bad ass is this going to be?" He asked me showing it off and wielding it in his hands, swiping at the air.

I laughed at his enthusiasm. "Okay, calm down with Mjolnir over there." I teased. Brad laughed sheepishly and let his arms fall to his sides. "Here, let me see it." I told him, reaching for the hammer.

It had sharp spikes on both ends of the hammer, intended to tenderize meat, but would probably do the same to criminal flesh, and had considerable weight to it. Plus it was fucking huge. This weapon could do Brad well, all he has to do is make some contact with it and the bad guys were going to be hurting.

"Alright, I don't think I need to teach you how to hit with a hammer do I?" I asked him, handing it back to him.

"Uh, no." He said sarcastically.

"Okay, well, than what I'm going to teach you is how to avoid getting beat up." I told him.

"Sounds like a good plan." He quipped back sarcastically, making me laugh.

Both Brad and I crouched down into a fighting stance. "Okay, now, a good thing to do is keep watching your opponent. They will often give a tell on what their next move is." I instructed him. "If you're watching closely enough, you should have enough time to deflect or avoid their blow completely."

We went through a few drills where I came at him, obviously projecting my intended actions so he'd learn the ropes. But then I started really coming at him and he wasn't doing as well. After accidentally punching Brad in the jaw I decided to call it a day.

Teaching Brad was harder than I thought it would be. I suddenly was aware of just how much Mindy put on hold to train me and felt both honored and lonely. I hadn't spoke too much with Ina about Mindy, mostly out of fear I'd slip some personal information about her, since I hadn't been able to keep my own secrets. But I'd really wanted to.

Since getting serious about crime fighting I'd started thinking about Mindy more and more. Of course I'd always missed having her around in a fight, but somehow my longing for her had bled over into regular life too. I'd always enjoyed the time we spent after training together, just goofing off and talking, it gave me a glimpse into who Mindy was outside of Hit Girl.

I'd always assumed her real life personality was as dark and morbid as her super hero one. But after spending time with her I'd discovered new things, like her sense of humor and how intelligent she is. And the night she came crawling into my bedroom was the largest eye opener of all. You would have thought nothing could shake a girl like Mindy, that nothing could get to her, but the cruelty of high school girls had opened up a wound in Mindy that wasn't easily healed.

I doubt I'll ever forget that night. For one, it was the first and only time I'd ever seen her cry. Hell, Mindy didn't even cry after her father had died, but I had seen a part of Mindy that she'd never shown anyone else. I felt close to her after that night, for once in our lives I was the one that was strong. I sincerely hoped Mindy never felt like that again.

I wasn't sure if I'd ever see her again, and it saddened me that I might never get to fight along side her again. And while it's pretty cool that Brad is now fighting with me, no one will ever come close to fighting alongside Mindy. The way she moves with confidence and takes complete control of the situation is almost breathtaking. It's like being in an action movie.

I just really hope she doesn't stay away forever.

* * *

_DUN DUN DUN! lol But seriously Mindy's story is really gaining traction now, so expect some action coming up._

_And as for Dave's chapter I had a hard time finishing that one out. I just wasn't feeling it I guess. But I wanted to make sure he got some training with Brad in and some longing for Mindy. _

_So, guys! Please leave reviews and thoughts for me! I love getting them and thanks so much for taking the time to leave your feedback. _


	16. Chapter 16

I wanted to just warn you guys beforehand, in case it offends anyone but the mention of racism and homophobia is mentioned heavily in this chapter, and violence sprouting from it. Just in case it's a trigger for anyone.

* * *

As much as I wanted to speed over to take down the racist pigs that killed Kim's date, I had no idea where they were located, or who they even were. So I had to bite my desire to kill and offered to take Nick back home, so he'd be able to get to bed at a decent hour. Thankfully everyone was still reeling from the night's events, so no one questioned it, and I was able to drive my Ducati back to its hiding spot.

I made sure to give Nick a stern talk on the walk back to the house, just to make sure it was clear that our trip was between just us. Upon entering the house I remembered that I had smashed a bowl against the fridge, so I cleaned it up real quick before retreating upstairs.

My mattress was still hanging off the box spring, exposing my knife collection. I tossed my keys back into their hole and repositioned the bed. I was about to curl up with my laptop when I noticed myself in the mirror. I still had on my blue dress and my makeup from earlier. My hair was windblown, and my dress was creased and wrinkled. So before bunkering down for a serious research session I decided to take a shower.

I've dealt with pedophiles, rapists, and general psychopaths. But racism wasn't something I'd ever had experience cleaning up. I wasn't sure how to even start combating that sort of a problem. Racism in itself isn't even a crime, not until something like what happened at homecoming happens anyway.

Plus what's my game plan? Do I go in and kill these guys, or do I pull a Dave and wait for the police to pick up what I leave them with? I was pondering this in the shower when inspiration struck. I was so excited about my plan that I raced through the rest of my shower and ran back to my room to get started.

The first item on my list was to do some shopping. I ordered a new Kevlar body suit (I needed a new one anyway, cause puberty's a bitch) I then spent a good hour picking out the perfect pair of revolvers to be mailed to a P.O. box in Greenville, since I'd also set up several different P.O. boxes around Cooper, two in Greenville, and three others in Mooresburg. Next I ordered a shit ton of rope and some new clothes.

After finished with my shopping, I started investigating the recent news articles to see if there was any information about the gang I was now targeting. Unfortunately there wasn't much usable information in there so I hacked into Greenville's police servers to access any reports that involved the gang. This gave me a name, which really rocketed my research. They called themselves the Brimstone Hell Hounds.

I also found out that it wasn't just racism that turned their freaky wheels. The victim at the restaurant after my rodeo competition was actually a dishwasher who the police believe was killed as an initiation ritual because he was gay.

These sick fucks were killing hispanics, blacks, homosexuals, and anyone associating with those people. I wasn't afraid of going up against this group, but I was debating whether or not I should kill the bastards or just leave them tied up for the police. They certainly deserved to be killed, if at least to clean out the gene pool, but I was uneasy about killing people again since the NYPD weren't too happy about it.

After looking through the police records of incidents I started trying to pick out members from arrests in the area. Even though Kim had said she was glad I'd left the dance, I really wish I had stayed. I surely would have been able to keep her date alive, and gotten a good look at the sickos that were doing this.

The police reports from this evening's event hadn't been put in the system yet, but that was expected. I had to wait for my new equipment to arrive first, so waiting for that information wasn't unbearable, but I really wanted to get rid of the guys that had hurt Kim, fast.

I found two guys that had been arrested in connection with the gang's crimes so I started looking up their information, hoping to make connections to other gang members. Their names were Adam Stammon and John Rocker. They were both out of jail now, since neither stayed for more than a few months, but they were still a starting point.

Adam Stammon was an idiot. Imagine the cliché southern rebel and you've got a dead ringer for Adam. He'd been arrested for vandalism of a Baptist church in Greenville that had a predominately black congregation. He'd also been suspected of being a part of other violent acts done by the Brimstone Hell Hounds.

John Rocker was an interesting fellow. He started out playing pro baseball but after retiring he tried doing sports casting, but after several racist and homophobic remarks in his broadcasts he was fired. He was jailed for beating a Hispanic couple with a baseball bat, but only spent five months in jail before getting out.

Both Adam and John's short jail times were leading me to think that they either had super lawyers or someone in government who was on the side of the Brimstone Hell Hounds, probably the judge. So I had that guy to add to my hit list as well.

And it's really amazing how people use social media. Our friends John Rocker and Steve Lyons had friends on Twitter that were tweeting some very interesting things about race and sexual preference, and they were both a part of a Facebook group called the White Knights which was obviously a thinly veiled white supremacy group. I looked at other members from the area and cross referenced it with the interesting twitter commentators and found some matches.

By the end of my research I'd found five solid leads, but I wanted to find out who it was that killed Kim's date before I did anything. I was going after those guys first. And they were going to pay dearly.

* * *

I'm glad to say Brad has improved. I'm not as worried about him getting killed and between him and Marty I'm feeling much better about the plan. The three of us were at Brad's apartment bull shitting.

"So the last D'Amico kingpin is down, how ya feel, Dave?" Marty asked me referring to the news that had come out today that Raphie D'Amico, Frank D'Amico's brother, had been killed in his jail cell. He was actually pinned to the wall by a large spike through his head, so whoever killed him made it personal.

"Well, I'm glad I don't have to worry about him, I guess." I answered. Truthfully I was kind of puzzled by it. For the past few years Ralph had been running the D'Amico crime family effectively from inside the prison. Mindy even had him on her list to keep an eye on, as she wasn't able to actually kill him with the rest of the D'Amicos, him being in jail and all. It just seemed strange to me that this powerful and feared man was killed so easily, brutally, and without detection.

"Maybe it was Hit Girl?" Brad offered up. As much as I'd love to think that was true, I knew Mindy was smarter than to risk blowing her cover at this point. She'd left the city after all.

"No, she's not in town." I replied, casually, mulling it over in my head.

"She's not?" Brad asked me, shocked.

"Well, no. She left town after the warehouse fight. Cause the police are after her." I told them, adding the hint as to why, at the end when both their faces were covered in confusion.

"So she's really gone then? She left you to handle it all by yourself?" Marty asked me. "I mean, I always thought you two were still working together, you were just being really quiet about it." Marty added.

"So you two were an official team then?" Brad asked me, joining in the debate.

I had to sigh a little bit, I missed Mindy. A lot. And talking about her was bittersweet, while I did like to talk about her and brag about how great and dedicated she was, it always left me feeling empty afterwards.

"Yes she's gone, and yes we worked together before, I don't know if I'd say we were an official 'team' or not, but…" I trailed off for a moment, trying to decide if I should reveal this information. In the end I decided to go ahead. "But I wanted us to be." I said softly.

"Shit Dave, don't go turning into Todd about it." Marty teased. I snapped up and gave Marty a glare, I am NOTHING like Todd.

"No. I am not… Like that." I told him angrily.

"Dude, hate on Todd all you want or whatever, but you have to admit, the way you just said that…" Marty trailed off, baiting me for a reaction.

"She's fifteen!" I reacted, causing Marty to grin.

"So? Your nineteen, that's only a four year difference. Look at that one chick, Courtney Stodden, she married that fifty year old guy from the Green Mile, and she's like sixteen." Brad offered.

"That's just sick, dude." I replied to Brad's evidence.

"She's got weird tits, man. Have you like looked at them? They're all lopsided and shit." Marty commented.

"She just got a boob job, so they're even bigger now." Brad commented back, starting a conversation over the teen bride.

"What? Are you serious? The skin around her tits must be ready to explode, man." Marty responded.

"Guys! Who cares about her?" I interrupted, not wanting to think about the girl's sex life, since my mind had wandered to pondering what Mindy's boobs looked like.

"You do, Dave, cause you've got a thing for the young teen pussy." Marty shot back at me, quick as a whip with his comebacks.

I rolled my eyes and groaned. Brad snorted with laughter. "Look, Marty, I'm not into Mi-Hit Girl." I said.

"Ma-Hit Girl?" Marty asked, edging up on his seat, clearly interested, now.

"Whatever. Just, I don't like her like that. She's a friend and a partner." I explained trying to evade the questions about Mindy. Shit I am terrible at keeping secrets.

Marty leaned back in his seat, knowing not to press too hard about my slip of words. "Sure man, whatever you tell yourself." Marty said.

"You know in the new Hit Girl comic that she's grown up to a teenager now." Brad piped up.

"Really? So you're reading Hit Girl comics now?" Marty questioned Brad, teasingly.

"Well, yeah, I think it's interesting. Her story line is cool." Brad offered. "She's like a government trained assassin that went rogue and now they're trying to catch her." Brad explained, knowing that I don't read them.

"A government assassin that's ten?" I asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, she was a part of some top secret experiment to create child assassins. And it went horribly wrong. She killed off most of the researchers and only her handler got away. She lived with him, and they became costumed vigilantes." Brad went on.

"I'm guessing Big Daddy was supposed to be her handler." I supplied.

"Yeah, she thinks of him like a father, since she was an orphan that the government adopted for the program." Brad told me.

I sat there for a minute, letting the ridiculousness of the story sink in. "Just so you know, Brad, Big Daddy was her real father." I informed him.

"Really? Shit, that's bad ass, raising a little assassin." Marty commented, entering into the conversation.

"Yeah, until he was burnt alive and she had to come in and save him." I explained, trying to get across that her relationship with her father was not so great. I've always thought, and I doubt that it will ever change, that Mindy's father was insane. To raise your child to help you fight in a blood vendetta against crime bosses is fucking crazy.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." Marty said.

"The scenes in the comic where they show that part are really cool though, her going around killing all those guys, single handedly." Brad offered.

"Whatever." Was all I said, I didn't want to talk about it. I felt bad for Mindy, her childhood and the way her father raised her was the reason she had such trouble in school when trying to be normal. Otherwise I'm sure she would have known to steer clear of a group of mean girls. Her social skills lacked something.

It's the reason I think she and I connected so well. We both were outcasts and we both were masked crime fighters. We didn't need to have awkward introductions and weird we aren't quite friends yet moments. We just clicked. We worked together. Granted she scared the shit out of me at first and until I had figured her out I thought she was deranged, but now I just know she was raised a bit differently than the average kid.

But after taking down Frank D'Amico we bonded. She actually trusted me enough to reveal her secret identity, and that was saying something. We weren't really close after that outside of crime fighting. I didn't hang out with her at school, or spend time with her in Atomic Comics, although I'd seen her in there a fair number of times. But we had an understanding.

But then she started training me our friendship really blossomed. I'd wager to say I was closer to her than I was Marty or Todd (at that time anyway). And I was definitely closer to her than I was Katie. My relationship with Katie was more physical than anything else. And honestly if I hadn't told her I was Kick Ass, I know now we never would have gotten together.

My friendship with Mindy was real and genuine. And losing her after the fight with Chris was hard, and still is. I just wish she'd given me some way to contact her, or at least know where she was. I'd love to meet up with her again for a Hot Chocolate and just talk about everything that's happened in my life since she's been gone.

I've pretty much accepted my dad's death, I've met Ina, who's amazing and has given me someone new to care about and protect, and I've met Brad too. Plus I've sort of abandoned Todd. Which Ina keeps bugging me about apologizing to, but that's never going to happen. What do I need to apologize for? Anyway, all these things have happened and it makes me wonder if Mindy's life has changed.

I hope it has. I hope she's somewhere nice, living a normal life, and has made some friends. She deserves it, she deserves to be normal. I'd just like to be able to talk to her about it.

* * *

_So in writing this chapter I'm probably going to have the police knocking on my door cause I've been doing research on the KKK and racism and fascism and what not. Also fun note, the men who were arrested as part of the motorcycle gang are named after and inspired by actual famous racists. And when looking that part up, an unusual amount of pro baseball players were on that list… Don't know what that means, but anyway…_

_I hope no one's turned off by the racism and homophobia, I just figured a good group of bad guys for the south would be something along those lines, not that I'm making assumptions, but I feel like we can all agree that those things are wrong._

_Anyway, the comic book version of Hit Girl's story is inspired by an American Dad episode._

_I promise in the next chapter or two I'll have Dave doing something other than just reminiscing about Mindy lol. But for now, this is what you guys get :)_


	17. Chapter 17

My things arrived. The problem was going to get them without anyone knowing about it. I didn't have transportation other than my bike, and I really didn't want to take it out again. I had a momentary lapse in judgment about that. Plus I have to go during the day when the post office is open.

Thankfully I came up with a solution. I'm beginning to think that Nick and I are going to be very close. Two days after the memorial service held for the homecoming victims I knocked on Nick's bedroom door.

"Hey." I said casually. He seemed nervous. But ever since that night I smashed the ice cream bowl against the fridge he's been acting weird around me. Which is understandable.

"Heeey…" He replied, cautiously, looking around the hallway, to see if anyone else was around. No one was of course, I'd waited until I knew Will and Jennie were out doing errands and Kim was busy downstairs with homework.

I stepped around him into his bedroom and turned to face him. "Close the door." I said. He hesitantly closed the door and stood there, frightened of me. "Have a seat." I said, sitting down on the side of his bed and patting beside me, welcoming him to take the spot.

He sat down, slowly and looked up at me, but he didn't say anything. "I've got some packages coming in town in a few days that I need to pick up." I started. I wasn't in full on intimidation mode, but I was staying just a bit frightening.

"Okay…" He responded, clearly buying my act.

"They're a part of our new little secret." I informed him, raising my eyebrows in emphasis. "So I need you to help me get them." Nick smiled up at me weirdly, as if he were trying to satiate me but was thinking of bolting for the door.

"So, do you have any ideas to cover my trip to Greenville and Mooresburg without anyone knowing about my packages?" I asked him, a little too sweetly. It worked like a charm, keeping me in control, and him aware of it.

"Um…" He said, staring at the wall behind me, thinking. I waited patiently. "I wanted to get a new video game at the mall." He offered.

"Perfect! I'll say I'm taking you to the mall, and we will get my packages on the way back." I responded the wheels turning in my head. I could also get some bags from the stores as if I bought items from the mall to carry my packages in, so it looked more natural and avoided suspicion. "I'll even pay for the game in return for your help." I added.

This caused a genuine smile to cover Nick's face. "Really?" He asked me.

"Yeah, so long as you don't tell anyone about our little secrets, I can reward you every once in a while." I said, coolly. My normal method of coercing people to cooperate was more violent, but this psychological version was working just fine on eleven year old Nick Travis.

So our plan was simple, choose a day where everyone else was busy, then Nick begs to go to the mall in Greenville. No one is free except for me, so I offer to take him in a cab. Jennie and Will are uneasy about us going to Greenville alone, especially after the homecoming massacre. But eventually they relent after Nick berates them with whining and nagging. That perfect child.

I was able to get my packages, and Nick got a free video game. While he was busy trying to beat the new game, I was busy hiding my new packages up in the attic. Thankfully we got home before anyone else so Kim wasn't around to ask me what I'd bought. She's been pretty solemn recently, with reason, but all the same, she's been going out alone pretty often. Even without Kaylee.

I was supposed to train with Patrick that day, but since the massacre, we've been rather distant. I don't know if it's because of what happened, or if it's because of awkwardness of sleeping together. In all honesty I wasn't super impressed with it. Like the homecoming dance, it's blown out of proportion. It happened, now it's over, so I don't understand why Patrick is acting so strange. Not that I don't mind having time off of rodeo practice, it just gives me more time to train for my new mission.

At night I was able to test out my new gear. I inspected my shiny new revolvers and they looked pretty bad ass if I do say myself. The Smith and Wesson 44 mags were a great choice. They paired perfectly with the rest of my purchases.

I put on my new Kevlar suit and put some jeans and layered black riding chaps over top of them. I added a retro cowgirl button up complete with tacky embroidery, slapped on a pair of boots and donned a black Stetson. I swear all I was missing was a wanted poster.

At first I was just going to wear my Hit Girl mask with the outfit, but I thought it would look too sleek to go with my new rough cowgirl getup, not to mention that someone might recognize it. So instead I chose to go the old school route and tie a bandana around my head like a classic western badass. I was pretty partial to my old purple wig and felt like the outfit really didn't look too different from my normal self, so I added a red wig of shoulder length waves to complete my disguise.

Thus, Rough Riley was born. My new superhero alter ego. She wields twin Magnum 44's and is real mean with a lasso. I'd decided going out as Hit Girl would only catch the attention of the NYPD to come down here and hunt me down, so I came up with a more fitting persona to take care of business in Cooper and the surrounding area.

As I looked in the mirror at my new costume I felt rather proud of myself. I was running through some hardcore dialogue in my head when I realized, I'm going to have to speak in a southern accent. Shit.

So I started practicing my dialogue out loud, albeit quietly. I was channeling some serious John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

"You come at me with a knife, son, you better be ready to use it." I said, testing out my accent. I made a face in the mirror. It wasn't quite right.

I tried again, "That's enough of that shit." I tested, better, but not quite.

I tried to think of Kaylee's voice, it was female, and twangy, and she was constantly using southern euphemisms as well as cutting off her words. I liked the idea of talking in the sweet southern voice Kaylee had, to get the dick heads off their guard, then strike them with quick gun work and martial arts.

"You must pay for everything in this world, one way or another. There is nothin' free 'cept the grace of God." I smiled, knowing I'd not only gotten the accent right, but the line as well. This sick fuckers were under the impression that they were doing God's work, so what better than to talk in a sweet southern drawl, and remind them that God is the only one that can save them from me.

* * *

This must be what Mindy felt like after the warehouse fight, concerning me anyway. I'm so proud of how Brad did in the fight, and Marty too. They weren't as good as Mindy would have been, but they did geat considering I'd only started training them a few weeks ago.

The three of us started the night off suiting up and going over the plan in my house. I haven't brought any of them to the safe house, or told them where it is. I figured Mindy wanted be to keep it secret or use only in emergencies. Marty was the first one to show up at a little after five, since that's when his last class of the day was.

He brought a very large duffel bag with him that he'd picked up from his parent's house. It was filled with his costume and shield. As he started unpacking it, he also pulled out a small electronic device that looked like a police transmitter.

"What's that?" I asked him, pointing at the strange object.

"Oh, I don't know what it's called, but Todd gave it to me before he left," Marty replied sheepishly. I knew he stayed in touch with Todd and was still pretty close, but he didn't talk about him much, and when he did he was always really awkward about it. I sighed, I wasn't so mad at Todd anymore, but I still wasn't ready to forgive him either.

Ina had talked with me numerous times about repairing that friendship, but I just couldn't bring myself to contact him. It was easier to stay mad at him than admit I'm the reason for my dad's demise.

"So, what's it do?" I asked Marty, picking it up as he handed it to me. I flipped a switch on the side of it and it started making a high pitched electronic pulsing sound.

"Shit! Dude! Be careful with it! Turn it off, trust me, you don't want it to happen to you." Marty said, flipping out.

"Okay, geez, I just wanted to know what it does." I said, carefully switching if back off and handing it back to Marty.

"I don't know what it's called, but Todd used it in the warehouse fight and as soon as this black wand part touched the guy, he threw up all over the place." Marty explained. "It's not going to kill anyone, but it keeps them from fighting you after that." He added.

I smiled, impressed, "Cool, sounds like it will come in handy." I said. Marty then headed upstairs with his costume to change, and right after he disappeared upstairs, Brad was knocking on the door.

Brad had also brought a duffel bag, though his was considerably smaller than Marty's since he didn't have to hide a giant shield inside of it. This was the first time I was actually going to see Brad's costume, so I was kind of excited to see what he came up with.

I was sorting out the weapons I was going to bring with me on our fight when Marty came down the stairs in his Battle Guy costume.

"Holy shit dude." Brad said, taking in Marty's look. "You look so bad ass." And both Brad and Marty smiled. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, but I can't wait to see what 'Nordic Knight' looks like." Marty teased, making finger quotes around Brad's alter ego name.

"Well, be ready to quake with fear!" Brad bellowed in a weird deep voice as he raced up the stairs. I suppose he was trying to mimic Chris Hemsworth, although he was way off.

I looked over my small arsenal. I had my batons, two pairs of brass knuckles (one for each hand), as well as Big Daddy's old tool belt filled with flares, small explosives, and a couple of pocket knives. I also grabbed a 9mm Smith and Wesson in memory of Colonel Stars and Stripes (sans the ammo, keeping with his tradition).

I was already in costume, including the Kevlar padding Mindy had given me from Big Daddy's costume, so I packed my equipment in the tool belt and fastened my batons in their holsters on my back. By the time I was done I could hear Brad clunking down the stairs in his costume.

"Shit, I'm fucked. Both of you have fucking armor on, I'm in a spandex outfit." Marty whined, from the couch he was reclining on.

Brad had on a red and blue medieval tunic with a breastplate on top of it and a metal helmet. He had added a cape on the back and wore black boots on top of some sort of spandex pants on the bottom. He looked an awful lot like the Thor from the movies, but it didn't really matter, I didn't think. Besides, Marty was pretty much Captain America over there.

I chuckled to myself, "I should have been Iron Man, then we'd be the Avengers." I teased both Marty and Brad. We joked around concerning our costumes before I knew we had to get to business. This wasn't for fun, this was serious. We were taking down a prostitution ring tonight.

So I collected my team and we went over the plan once more before I drove us into Little Italy. I parked a few blocks from the souvenir shop and we walked through the alley, so we wouldn't gain attention in our costumes, since the police were technically still after us.

I had decided to follow the Colonel's steps for this one, since it worked so well the last time. And this was almost the same. But I didn't bother knocking on the door. I just kicked it in. I had known going in that it wasn't a reinforced metal one, so we got in easily. Plus the racket brought the fight to us.

The hallway was only really wide enough for two of us to fight side by side, and since Marty had a shield, he stood beside me, pushing the guys that got past me back into the depths of the shop, or at least back where I could get them.

There were only three guys that came out to fight us in the hall, so I was able to do most of the work by myself. I used the brass knuckles along with some knee jabs once they were bent over in pain from my punches. Once I'd gotten them pretty well disabled, Brad picked up where I left off with his meat mallet, making sure the men were out cold.

We got through the hallway and entered a dim, smoky room. It was empty for the most part, other than a few couches around the edges of the room. I could make out a desk in the middle of the room though. There were several men sprawled out on the couches unconscious. They didn't look like thugs, more like customers that were riding some sort of high. So we left them alone. There was one really big fucker that stepped in from a door on the right and his eyes went wide after he saw that Kick Ass and his friends were here.

But he narrowed his eyebrows and charged after me. Marty ran to meet him, raising his shield, stopping the full charge towards me. Marty was flung down from it, but I didn't stop for him, instead I reached behind me for my batons, pulling them out and jumping up to bring them down hard on the top of his head.

He stumbled, gripping the top of his head, but he wasn't down yet. Suddenly Brad came in from my right side and swung his 'hammer' into the back of the big guy's head, sending the man to his knees.

"Thanks." I said, nodding towards Nordic Knight and I kicked The guy in the face, knocking him completely down. He seemed pretty stunned, so I shouted at Marty. "Now would be a good time to use that vomit thing." I instructed him, and left him to stick the guy with that strange electronic device.

I pushed through the door my opponent had come through and was faced with another hallway. This one had doors spotting both sides of the hall, and I assumed it was where the girls were. I turned around and Brad was standing there, as I had hoped.

"I'll take the right, you take the left. Hopefullly any guys in there will be like our friends in the entryway." I said, referring the drugged out guys on the couches. Brad nodded in agreement and we threw open door after door to shrieking women, and startled men.

By the time I got down the hall, most of the men just tried to make a run for it but I only had one get away. On my last room, the girl turned to the lamp on the table beside her and smashed it over the head of the man I was fighting, knocking him out cold. I smirked at her actions, and looked at her. She was much prettier than the other women and I tried to stay casual as she sat there looking up at me, completely naked.

"Thanks for the help!" I said, helping her off the bed and leading her into the hallway, where the other girls were congregating. They were all confused and speaking in a language that sounded Italian.

I made a quick decision and ran back into a room, grabbing a lamp. I ran back out, and handed it to the women that had assisted me. "Here, just in case." I told her, smiling. She looked back and forth between me and the lamp before taking it, and smiling. I couldn't help but think she was pretty, even if her hair was a mess and she looked a bit worse for wear. I could tell underneath all of it, she had been beautiful.

I turned away from her though, finding Brad and Marty. "I think the head guys are upstairs." Marty said, as he pointed at the staircase at the end of the hall. We climbed up the stairs and most of the women followed us upstairs. I stopped and turned to them.

"No, stay here." I commanded, making hand gestures, hoping I was getting through to them. The girl with the lamp nodded her head and spoke in the Italian language at the other women, and they went back down, waiting at the base of the stairs, watching us go up. I nodded, and made an OK symbol with my hand before continuing up.

When we got to the next landing we were just met with more doors. "Fuck. Are you serious?" Marty whined.

"Hey, we've got this floor, go on up and see if you can find the guys in command here." We will meet you in a few minutes." Brad offered. I nodded and ran down the hall to the next pair of stairs. I bounded up two steps at a time. Thankfully I didn't even get winded, my training paying off.

I was met with a group of five guys. It reminded me of Rasul's place, it was dirty and the men were clearly users of something. I smirked, they'd clearly sent their big fighters after me to begin with, dumb asses.

I clenched my batons in my hands and dove in. I swiped at two that were close together, smashing their heads into each other, dazing them. While they were getting their bearings, I turned to another and rammed my right baton up, cracking his jaw together, causing him to bite his tongue. Blood spilled out of his mouth, and he bent to catch it. While he was distracted I turned to the fourth guy and gave a swift kick to his solar plexus, knocking the air out of him.

By this time the two from the beginning had regained their composure and were coming after me again. I threw my left baton at one and it hit him in the face, slowing him down. They were coming up on me from the behind, so I reached my elbow out to catch the fifth, who was coming after me as well, and got him in the nose. Blood spurted everywhere, and like the one that had bit his tongue, he bent over to cradle his broken nose.

The other head bash twin that I hadn't gotten to yet was up on me now. I wasn't quick enough and while I was turning around to get him, he landed a blow to the left side of my head, causing me to topple over, since my balance was off from turning around. I was on the ground and he started beating on me. But then he jerked back suddenly, and a stream of vomit came out of his mouth, right on top of me.

"Fuck!" I shouted, scrambling about, trying to avoid the spew, to no avail. I looked up at Marty and he shrugged, a repetitive smile on his face.

The guy I'd knocked the air out of had also regained himself but I he was convulsing on the floor, when I noticed him. Brad was standing over him, taser in hand. At this point now, all our opponents were too occupied to be a serious threat, other than the head bash twin I'd thrown my baton into his face.

So I turned to him, and drew my gun out of its holster on my belt, aiming it at his head, as he cowered on the ground. "Okay." I started. "Who the fuck are you?" I asked him.

He held his hands up in surrender and I could still hear the sound of his friend vomiting to my left as well as the moans from his injured friends.

"Okay, okay. Don't shoot." He pleaded. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

"Good." I said as chambered the invisible round.

"I'm Vinnie, that's Bart over there," He said, pointing at the vomiting man. "Those two are Ceaser and Frankie," He added, pointing at the bloodied men. "and he's Scott." He finished pointing at the moaning victim of Brad's taser, which was obviously more powerful than the one I'd used the night of Rasul's, or Scott was just more of a pussy than Rasul was.

"Okay, tell me what you know about these murders." I asked. I noticed Vinnie's eyes went wide, looking at something behind me and I turned around to see the man who'd bit his tongue, Ceaser, had risen and was charging after me. But then he was struck by a flying meat mallet, and sunk to the floor.

I turned to look at Brad and he was grinning from ear to ear. "Fuck yeah!" He exclaimed, clearly pleased with himself, bouncing up and down. "I can't believe I actually hit him!"

* * *

_So, you guys finally get to meet the character that inspired this whole story to begin with :) Finally, Rough Riley is on the scene. My original inspiration was while listening to Spiderbait's Black Betty and envisioning Mindy beating the crap out of a bunch of hillbillies. Then, I imagined a scenario where she was like a cowgirl, roping up guys with a lasso, and shooting guys with revolvers (obviously being the fastest draw in the west lol). _

_So more of Mindy's story will be coming... And Dave's is getting interesting as well. I have to say, the idea of Brad being able to hit the guy across the room with the meat mallet is pretty unbelievable, but him celebrating his success made me laugh, so I put it in :)_

_Hope you guys liked the chapter, please review and let me know what you think!_


	18. Chapter 18

Big things are happening in New York, things that are good news for me and my superhero friends. After my operation in Little Italy, we sent a total of seventeen men to jail, and freed over 25 girls from the house. That alone left Marty, Brad, and I feeling pretty good about ourselves, but one of the girls we freed has taken things into her own hands.

The girl that hit the guy over the head with a lamp actually started speaking out against the way the police treat us superheroes. Evidentially the police were more worried about finding us, than putting the men we left tied up in jail where they belong. This young woman was very offended that the police were asking her more questions about the people that saved her from a horrible life, than finding evidence to imprison her oppressors.

And when she stepped out of the precinct after questioning, she addressed the media circus that had materialized around the building. So when Ina and I were meeting for lunch at her favorite bistro down the street from her office, she excitedly showed me the New York Times' front-page headline.

"Prostitution Victim Rescued by Kick Ass Speaks Out Against Police Treatment of Superheroes"

The article mentioned her broken English, but that the meaning of her words was very clear: The police are focusing on the wrong thing. She even accused them, saying, "If [the police] do their job right, Kick Ass and his friends wouldn't had to save me."

This has sparked a huge debate over the ordeal, since many people were already under the assumption that the NYPD should leave us alone. That courageous young woman, named Elena, has now become a founding member of the Superhero Allies Foundation, the new group rallying for not only ending the police investigation, but also creating federal and state laws to protect superhero identities and rights.

This is huge news for me, and has even encouraged Justice Forever members to come out of hiding. We had our first meeting in seven months last night. The whole gang was there, Dr. Gravity was there Insect Guy too, Remembering Tommy showed, and even Night Bitch came. Plus Brad and Marty.

We met at some abandoned apartment complex in Queens, since our original headquarters was now owned by some sports bar franchise, since the bar Colonel Stars and Strips had owned was sold after his death.

Marty told me Todd would have come if he'd been in town, but honestly I'm glad cause I'm not ready to face him yet, even though it's been something Ina has been coaching me on recently.

For the most part we all sort of caught up on what's happened in our lives and talked about the new Superhero Allies Foundation (SAF). We didn't even make plans for anything other than our next meeting where Brad suggested I train the team, like I had him. I wasn't so keen on it though. It's one thing to spend time with a close friend and teach him what you know, it's another thing entirely to teach a whole group of people. But the others were all for it so I reluctantly accepted.

Afterwards, I noticed that like before, Night Bitch lingered after the others had gone. Although she was much more reserved than before. I actually hadn't noticed she was still around until I was walking out the door, and her hand reached out to catch the door after me. She smiled, but not in the alluring way she had done only a few months earlier. But maybe her smile didn't change; maybe it was me who's changed.

"Hey." She said, as we walked down the street, civilian clothes back on. We'd decided at the meeting that even though the SAF had been founded, it still wasn't safe to walk around in a costume all the time, and since we'd all seen each other out of costume anyway, it didn't make a difference to us to show up, change, and then change back after the meeting was over.

"Hey." I responded, feeling awkward. I wasn't sure what to say or do around her. We had been 'something' before, but when I'd gone to see her in the hospital she made it clear our 'something' wasn't anything special.

"I think it's great you haven't stopped being Kick Ass." She said. "Especially considering what happened to your father." She added, turning to me.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to go to the funeral." She said, plainly. She didn't sugar coat it, she didn't dance around it either.

"It's okay. I know you wanted to be with your family, after what happened." I replied, knowing we understood each other now. We were both hit with tragedy in our lives from Chris Fucking D'Amico, we don't have to act like we knew what the other was going through, like my other friends did.

Miranda smiled, knowing that we understood each other now, and we walked onward. "I was surprised that Hit Girl was at the big fight in the warehouse." She stated, as if asking for me to elaborate.

"Yeah, she had a moment where she wasn't able to work, but then the, um, opportunity came up again, so she took it." I told her, being selective in my words, to keep Mindy's life secret.

"I was actually honored to fight alongside her. She's amazing." Miranda said.

"Yeah, she is." I replied, my mind wandering to the teen superhero that had been occupying my head so much recently.

"Dave?" I heard Miranda ask, and when I turned to look at her she was smiling.

"Uh, yeah?" I replied.

"Nothing." She answered, looking down at the ground, a smile still playing on her lips.

I didn't know what to say so I just kept walking in silence. We came to an intersection after a few minutes, and she turned to me.

"Dave, don't be a stranger." She told me, starting to back up going the opposite direction I was headed. She'd clearly noticed I was waiting for the walk signal, yet she only needed to turn down the corner. She was smiling again. "You're a great guy. You know none of the others came to see me in the hospital." She said serenely, stopping her backwards steps. "I know we can't be lovers, but I'd be lucky to have you for a friend." She added.

I was confused, why couldn't we be lovers? We'd already fucked. Women are so confusing.

"Yeah, I'd, uh, like that too." I replied, trying to act like I knew what she was talking about. Miranda laughed.

"I'll see you around, Dave!" She called out as she turned and walked away. Strange girl.

* * *

"I ain't happy with what you've done to those high schoolers." I called out in a sickly sweet southern drawl, making sure to speak loudly enough to be understood underneath the bandana.

Two men turned around to see Rough Riley narrowing her eyebrows, hands on her hips, resting right above the handles of her twin revolvers. They both scrunched their faces in confusion. And I took in their appearances.

The taller one was lanky and homely looking, a scraggly beard covering his face. He was known as Scrappy. The other one had on a cut off shirt and I could see some muscle definition in his arms, he was named Rodger. I made a mental note to make sure to get rid of him first since he posed the biggest threat in combat.

I'd found the two men responsible for the Cooper Homecoming Massacre, before the police had even figured it out themselves. I'd tracked them to a bar the Brimstone Hell Hounds frequented, but had been staking out the place for a few hours to make sure my prey was around, and alone. I'd been sure to bring all the matching evidence needed to lock up the dicks after I'd taken care of presenting them to the authorities. But that came later.

At that moment I was savoring taking down the racist pigs that had ruined homecoming for my friends. I noticed the shorter one had took notice of the gun handles protruding from their holsters. I smirked underneath the bandana.

"In fact, gentlemen, I'm right pissed 'bout it." I said, as the men took serious notice of me. The taller, lanky one cocked his head to the side and twisted his face into a snarl.

"Who the fuck are you?" He asked me in a horrible accent, not at all cute like Patrick's was.

"I'm the new law in these lands." I answered, cocking my head to the side as well.

"You ain't no law round here." The other one responded. "The law don't mess with us."

"I noticed." I said, kicking my hip out, being as nonchalant about this as possible. "But I promise ya, once I'm done with ya's, y'all ain't gonna forget me." I added, menacingly.

Both the men were still standing there, dumb looks on their faces, so I decided to start the fight. I whipped my left gun out and shot Rodger clean in the knee, effectively taking him down. The kick was a bit more than I was used to, and I was aiming for the thigh, but I was still able to hit him. I reholstered the gun, while reaching for the bundle of rope on my right hip.

I expertly tied it into the lasso, just like Patrick had taught me, and was twirling it in the air before Scrappy even knew what was happening. I saw him lunge for a beer bottle on the bar and throw it at me. I stepped to the side and easily missed his shot. I then cast my rope, it fell around Scrappy perfectly. I pulled the rope taught, and had his feet caught. I then pulled roughly, toppling Scrappy over, knocking his head on the counter of the bar in the process. He was halfway closer to me now, so I flipped over towards him and landed a punch to his face.

I could just tie up both these lackeys and leave in a matter of minutes, but I was going to have a little fun with these two first. I then reached into my pocket and pulled out a simple pocket knife, flicking it open. I glanced over at Rodger to make sure he was still rolling on the floor in agony before swiping the blade across Scrappy's cheek, causing blood to trickle out, only giving him the pain without the danger of bleeding to death. Rodger, after being shot in the knee with my new .44 had a higher risk of that.

Scrappy wailed out in pain and rose his hands to his face. I took that opportunity to swiftly stand up and kick him over. I deftly loosened the rope around his ankles and retreated away, begging him to try coming at me. I wanted to dance with this fucker.

Scrappy obliged a lady, and clumsily rose to his feet. Carefully watching me with the lasso in my hands, he then glanced around him to find a new weapon. He then picked up a chair and threw it against the table, breaking it into wood shards to attack me with.

I shook my head no, as he turned back to me, toying with him. I thought for a second how bad ass it would be to have a whip too, just to snap the items thrown at me, and mentally made the note to buy one once I got back home to my computer.

Scrappy didn't pay my heed, and came barreling towards me, a chair leg in each hand. I quickly hooked the rope on my belt and ducked his lunge, landing a punch to his side as I swiveled to his back side. I then jumped up and kicked him in the back of the head, pushing him over.

I reached for my rope again and twisted it around his neck before pulling it tight. Scrappy dropped the chair legs in surprise. I backed up, cutting of his air supply and choking him. I turned around to see Rodger still cradling his knee. I smiled, letting the smile show in my eyes. Rodger noticed and tried to back away, but wasn't quick enough. As I was still pulling Scrappy around by the neck, I jumped up and roundhouse kicked Rodger in the head, pulling Scrappy along with me.

"Oh dear, did that hurt, darlin?" I asked Rodger in my syrupy southern voice, feigning interest. I then grabbed one of the nearby chair legs that Scrappy had dropped, and landed a hard hit to Rodger's shot knee, bringing the end of the leg right down into the bullet wound. "No? Well, that should help, honey." I said, as Rodger screamed out in pain and I pulled Scrappy up towards me.

He was grasping at his neck, desperately trying to regain his air intake, but to no avail. I grabbed him by the hair, and his arms were so busy trying to free his neck he didn't even swing at me.

"I don't wanna hear 'bout you two causin' no trouble again, now, ya hear?" I addressed both of them and let go of Scrappy's hair, throwing him down to the floor. I was no longer pulling the rope tight around his neck so the was trying to remove it from his neck when I pulled out the second rope coil from my left him and roped him with it around the torso, pinning his arms to himself. I pulled on him so he was laying face down and then stepped forward to tie him up good.

After pleased with my work I took the rope that was around his neck and roped up Rodger, making sure they were both secure before reaching into my pocket for the folded up manila envelope with the evidence needed to jail these two delinquents. I backed up to look at my handiwork. I then walked over to the bar and picked up the cell phone Rodger had been using when I walked in. I called in my catch to the police and slowly walked towards the door to exit, but then turned around to address my prey one last time.

"Y'all stop being such racist cunts now ya hear? And if anyone asks, tell 'em Rough Riley sent ya." I said as I tipped my black hat in their direction and sauntered out the door.

I then hopped on top of the bicycle Nick had so 'graciously' leant me, after I'd had another private discussion with him. He was turning out to be a very helpful sidekick of sorts.

I peddled back to Cooper, and to the Travis home. It was after three in the morning by the time I shimmied up the drainpipe into the open window of Nick's room. Since my bedroom was in the back part of the house with nothing in the house structure to help me crawl up, I'd already decided to make my escape and return through Nick's window which let out on top of the garage, making it an easy place to crawl in and out of.

Nick stirred when I came through the window. "Wha… Mindy?" He asked groggily.

"Shh, It's me. Go back to bed." I told him, and he curled up in his sheets, falling back asleep quickly. I smiled and pulled the bandana off my face, to let it hang around my neck. I then quietly crept into my own room, stripping off my costume and stuffing it up in the attic space. I wanted to take a shower, but it would wake the family up so I just changed into my pajamas and lay down on my bed, letting my mind race from the nights adventure.

I hadn't let myself get caught up in it while I was fighting Scrappy and Rodger, but now that it was over I couldn't help but smile. I hadn't felt this good since the night I'd taken my bike out of hiding for a joy ride to the hospital. The excitement and adrenaline pulsing through my veins washed over me, enveloping me in a feeling I was dying to tell someone about. I thought about waking up Nick to tell him about it, but I decided not to wake him. Besides, the less he really knew, the better.

I knew one person who would most likely jump at the opportunity to talk about my vigilante adventures, but I couldn't talk to him, no matter how bad I wanted to. And he was probably wrapped up in the arms of some Tits McGee anyway.

But not even that thought could bring me down tonight. I relished in the image of Rodger's face when I drove the chair leg into the bullet wound, and then reminded myself I was going to buy a whip and flipped open my computer to do some shopping. I also made a note to practice using my new guns since they were more powerful than I'd thought they would be.

I wondered if Patrick would think it weird if I asked to go on our next date to a shooting range. But then how would I explain the .44 I bring along? Oh well, that was another question for another day.

* * *

_I'm sorry to say that updates may get spaced out more in days to come since I've got a huge project coming up that's going to be a major time suck lol. But i promise I'll still make updates :)_

_I'm not super happy with Dave's part, and I think the interaction with Miranda/Night Bitch is kind of weird, but I hope I was sort of successful with what I'm trying to get across..._

_Anyway, I hope you guys like the chapter, and please review to let me know your thoughts!_


	19. Chapter 19

Patrick didn't think it was weird I wanted to go to a gun range for a date. In fact, he seemed excited about it. He told me there was a place outside Mooresburg that he and his family liked going to, so that's where he wound up taking me. It was named Alamo Guns and I have to admit I was pretty excited about it too. I'd never actually been to a gun range before, despite my extensive knowledge of firearms.

Daddy had always kept our lives under wraps, not to mention it was probably against his parole to own and use firearms, so him taking me to a gun range wasn't the best idea. We did most of our practice in vacant lots in sparse parts of town. One of our favorite areas was an abandoned grain terminal in Brooklyn.

I hadn't brought my .44s since the gun range rents guns and it would probably look really weird for a 15 year old New Yorker to have a gun, not to mention that I didn't want anyone to know I own guns. I'm not even sure if Will or Jennie have a gun. I mean, they have about twenty-five stuffed up in the attic, thanks to me, but that doesn't really count. But this is Texas, so maybe they do.

Of course Will and Jennie were hesitant for me to go to the gun range with Patrick, but they eventually let me go, after Kim spoke up and told them after what happened, we should all know how to fire a gun to protect ourselves. Texas theology, right there, it's probably why I fit in so well here.

Anyway, we arrived at the gun range and rented a variety of guns to fire. I had to pick out some pussy ass guns along with the .44 since I was supposed to be new at this, not to mention a frail wittle, whiney girl. But I was also able to convince Patrick to add a shotgun to our collection, since I'd never had the chance to shoot one before, surprisingly. Daddy had owned a few, but we rarely used them, and he'd never taught me with one.

Patrick was a gentleman about it though, he set up my target and 'taught' me how to load my ammunition, as if I needed him to. Shit, I could load it faster than he could. But I had to remind myself when I found myself rolling my eyes, and feeling a sigh coming on, to cool it, since I wasn't here to show off. Patrick shouldn't know I'm an ace markswoman.

Patrick even tried to help me hold and aim the guns, which was kind of cute. I certainly liked him wrapping his arms around me. It actually threw off my aim a little, which was probably good. Which I think I did a good job of throwing off my aim, since as far as he knew I was just aiming at the bulls eye, but I was really focusing on other areas, just to throw off a false bread trail, so to speak.

I was able to perfect my aim with the .44 and I got used to the kick, even one handed, but I'm only going to be doing it one handed with my right since it's still got quite a kick. But I have to say the shotgun was my favorite gun of the day.

Just the sheer power of it, not to mention how bad ass you feel with the pump action on that bad boy. And it's so fucking big! I may stay in Texas forever, just so I can use shotguns against the shit stains of society.

After I reluctantly left my new sanctuary, Patrick took me out for dinner at a hamburger place where they actually come out to your car on roller skates. It was kind of cool actually, I got a milkshake and we had plenty of room to eat in that huge ass truck of his. The food was really good too, it reminded me of the burgers they served at the bowling alley daddy and I used to go to. They were greasy and messy, and delicious, a perfect combination when it comes to burgers.

It was still daylight when we neared Cooper again, and Patrick suggested we stop at his ranch for some one-on-one time. So who was I to argue? He pulled into the long drive, but instead of stopping at the house, he took a sharp right and we traveled further through the ranch than I'd ever been before. Finally we stopped near a pond, where there was a clear view of the Western sky, and Patrick set out a blanket he conveniently had tucked behind the seat, so we could sit out and enjoy the sunset.

I have to say, I've never just sat and watched the sun set before. It wasn't spectacular, but it was pretty. It took a lot longer than I thought it would though. I remembered watching the sun rise with Dave after taking out Frank D'Amico, and that was something, although the way the light bended around all the skyscrapers made it a little more interesting than just gazing across a flat plain.

I was starting to wonder if Dave had watched the sun rise with his girlfriend, or any other girls, when Patrick started kissing my neck. He'd actually startled me, so I jumped a bit, and giggled at the ticklish touch.

"Gosh, baby, you're awfully jumpy." He remarked, "All them gun shots set you off?" He asked me, his hands traveling over my shorts and tugging at my shirt.

"No, I was just thinking, you surprised me." I told him truthfully.

"Thinkin' bout what?" He asked me, smiling. I'm sure he thought I was thinking about him, so telling him I was thinking of a boy back from New York probably wasn't going to fly, not to mention that I was wondering if he'd watched a romantic sunrise with another girl, with jealous thoughts popping up towards the end.

"Oh, just about…"I trailed off for a second, trying to find some other topic to discuss. "Homecoming." I interjected, thinking about the shooting I could have prevented, and the sorrow I could have averted had I stayed a little longer.

Patrick chuckled, "Me too." He said suavely. "I was thinkin' bout how I'd really like to recreate that night." He said.

I snapped to look at him, appalled. Recreate the night? Our classmates died that night! I thought, indignantly. But then I felt his fingers brush against the skin above my hips, underneath my shirt and I realized he meant the part of the night we spent in his truck.

Before I even had the right of mind to switch my thinking, he was kissing me hard, like he'd done that night. But before we were laying on top of each other he stood up and took my hand.

"Come on, I've got an idea." He said, leading me off towards the pond. The sun had set by this point, and the moon wasn't full so I couldn't see so well. I stumbled a few times, but Patrick caught me. Then he pulled off his shirt and was undoing his belt buckle.

Why the hell did he take me down here to have sex? There was a perfectly good blanket up there. Did he have some fetish to do it in unconventional places?

"Come on, it's a perfect night for it." He said as he got down to his briefs, and was pulling his socks off, awkwardly doing the hopping sock dance.

"Perfect night?" I asked him, still confused. I was about to suggest we just go back up to the blanket when he pulled off his underwear and walking into the pond.

Oh.

I blushed, which I seemed to do a lot of around Patrick. I seemed to always misinterpret his actions and words. He wanted us to go skinny-dipping. But I didn't take my clothes off. I just looked at him and the dark water, with uncertainty. Who the fuck knew what was in there, and it's too dark to see. There could be leeches or some shit.

"Aww, ain't nothing to worry bout. I do this all the time." He assured me. But that just made me question his sanity.

"You swim in the pond naked all the time?" I asked him.

He paused for a moment and then nodded sheepishly. "Lots of people do that 'round here."

I still wasn't keen on it, but I eventually got in with him, ass naked. I didn't enjoy it though, I spent the whole time worrying about what I couldn't see in the water. In fact, I didn't really enjoy the rest of the night either. Because once we got out, we were all wet and the grass stuck to our wet skin so we were practically covered with it when we went back up to the blanket.

Not to mention that the feeling of his wet, grass spotted skin felt weird and clammy against mine once we fucked on the blanket. Given it was better than being cramped up against the car door, but not by much. It was only saved by the fact that I had my first orgasm. I think.

I felt different this time, than the first time. But I've never had an orgasm before, so I'm not sure. Maybe I could ask Kaylee or Kim. Although bringing up boys and relationships around Kim has sort of been taboo lately. I'll just have to ask Kaylee. If she's ever had sex, which I'm not sure if she has or not, she's never mentioned it. But we haven't really talked about our sexual lives with each other.

I'd think Kaylee would faint if she'd been around to hear the way Brooke and her friends were talking so nonchalantly about sexual favors when I'd first met them. But I also think she'd faint if she ever heard me talk normally with all my added punctuations with the words cunt or motherfucker.

* * *

I arrived late to this weeks' Justice Forever meeting, and when I walked inside pretty much everyone was already there. Marty and Don (Dr. Gravity's real life persona) were talking animatedly about something and as soon as I was through the door, Marty called me over.

"Dave!" He called out to me, motioning with his hands. Brad and the rest of the team were all huddled around Marty and Don, clearly interested in their conversation.

"Tell him, tell him what you said." Marty said, prodding Don to confess his remark, smiling like a cheshire cat.

"What part?" Don asked Marty for clarification. But just by the way everyone was leaned in around the two with rapt attention, not to mention how excited Marty was, piqued my interest.

"The thing you saw, at the funeral." Marty suggested.

"Oh. Okay, well…" Don started, "I just thought it was kind of weird. I didn't really think much of it or notice it at the time in all the confusion, but I just was telling Marty and everyone," Don motioned to the group clustered around him, "That blonde girl that you talked with at your father's funeral,"

Don was interrupted my Marty at this point, "The girl you hugged." He said suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows at me. I was taken aback. Part of me wanted to give Marty a dirty look for suggesting anything, and the other part of me didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Yeah. Anyway, The blonde girl was flung into some statue after the explosion, but I just remembered seeing her leave moments after you were dragged away, AFTER taking a gun from that guy she was with." Don said, looking at me expectantly.

I felt my stomach drop. "Uh…" I mumbled nervously.

"So, Dave…" Marty started, stepping forward to drape his arm over my shoulder, and looking at me with that shit eating grin of his. "What WE," He motioned to the Justice Forever team members, "were wondering, NAY hypothesizing," Marty was taking very dramatic pauses at this point and I had to shoot him a dirty look, just spit it out already. "Was that the blonde girl in question… Was none other than the infamous Hit Girl."

I looked around at the faces of my team members and sighed. Well, at least it wasn't my fault by blabbing her identity. Besides, I don't have to tell them who she really is. I was about to admit defeat when Marty continued.

"And when Don told me this, I remembered being at the funeral and recognizing that blonde girl, that you hugged, as being the freshman Katie broke up with you for fucking." Marty said smugly.

"Okay, Marty, I already told you, I did not sleep with her." I told him, straitening out the facts.

"So you're saying we're correct in our assumptions then?" Marty asked, clearly anticipating a positive answer.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Yes." I muttered, wanting to go ahead and get started on our training.

"Holy shit!" Marty boomed, slapping my on the back. "You're fucking Hit Girl."

"Marty, I told you I did not sleep with her." I snapped.

"Sure Dave, Sure." Marty said, waltzing back towards the group, who were all chattering between themselves, excitedly, after knowing a little bit more about their infamous ally.

"I'm serious, Marty. That's not what our fight was about." I yelled above the noise of several conversations. Everyone fell silent, and looked at me, curious. I looked from face to face, and I could feel myself getting heated with embarrassment, much like the time I'd accidentally responded to Katie at our lockers when she was actually talking with Erika.

"She'd been training me… And, stuff came up that she couldn't do anymore… So we fought about it." I explained to a rapt audience. I knew my face was probably as red as Insect Man's costume, although he wasn't wearing it tonight, since we had all decided to just wear work out clothes to tonight's meeting. "Both you and Katie misunderstood what was happening." I meekly finished.

I stood there for a minute, while everyone stared at me silently. "Can we just start doing our training stuff… Come on!" I awkwardly tried to change the subject and begin our exercises.

No one brought up Hit Girl again, and once we were finished we all parted ways, except Miranda, who latched onto my arm right as we passed the threshold and looked up at me with bright eyes.

"I was thinking we could hang out some tonight, if you're not busy." She suggested and I accepted.

We walked in silence towards my house for a while before Miranda piped up again. "It's cute how flustered you get when you talk about Hit Girl. I've noticed it before."

"What?! What do you mean?" I asked her, suddenly feeling all hot and embarrassed again.

She giggled, "Yeah, just like that." She said, pointing at my face.

"No, it's just that she takes her secret identity really seriously, and it's just kind of embarrassing to have to admit that you guys have seen her as a civilian." I explained.

Miranda just looked up at me and smiled. "Okay." She said, and we walked on for another moment of silence. I was about to defend myself again, but then she pointed over at the coffee shop across the way. "Ooh, I'm freezing," She said, squeezing in closer to me, "Let's get something to warm up!" She suggested.

"Okay, sure." I replied, feeling a little cool myself, the change in weather was taking its effect after the sun had gone down. I was starting to wish I'd worn my wetsuit. It would have insulated my body heat better than the cotton shirt and athletic pants I was wearing.

After getting coffee we finished walking to my home, where we sat finishing the last dredges of our coffee and watching late night television. We chatted for a bit about odds and ends before Miranda placed a hand on my thigh, and looked up at me.

"Dave, I know we can't be lovers." She said, before continuing on. "But I'd still like to have some grown up fun with you, every once in a while. If that's okay with you." She told me, asking for an answer.

I was confused, she wanted to fuck me, but she didn't want to be my girlfriend. "Um…" I said slowly, confused.

"You're just such a nice guy and, that's just so hard to find, you know? I know we can't be together because honestly between work, sleep, and Justice Forever I hardly have time to do anything else. But I know one day, you'll make the right girl, unbelievably happy." Miranda said, honestly.

"See this is…" I said, trying to find the words. Finally I just sighed and spit it out. "Girls are so confusing."

Miranda giggled, "We have to be, Dave, it's how we weed out the good boys from the bad ones." She said, smiling. "Besides, I know I'm not the one for you." She paused and looked away for a moment. "But I think she's closer than you even know."

I sat there for a moment, thinking about what she'd said. Then suddenly Miranda was sitting in my lap, straddling me. "But, that doesn't mean we can't have fun in the mean time." She purred and kissed me. "So, friends with benefits good enough for you?" She asked, teasing me, her fingers drawing circles through my shirt.

I didn't hesitate to answer, who am I to refuse a lay with a gorgeous woman? "Sounds good to me." I replied, and Miranda smiled as she pulled her shirt off, revealing a bright yellow sports bra.

"Okay then, have at me." She teased. I leaned in to kiss her, and twisted my fingers into the hem of her bra, slowly pulling it up from around her tits. They sprang out, just as large and milky as I remembered them being. I played with them for a while, rolling them around in my hands, feeling her occasionally grind against me.

I twisted us around so I lay on top of her on the couch, and she pulled my shirt over my head, and smiled mischievously. "I'll be honest, Dave, I really only want to sleep with you because of your body." She said, running her fingers over my chest, and pressing her hands against my abs.

"Thanks?" I said, unsure to take the complement or not. Miranda hooked her fingers around the waistband of my pants and pulled them down. I wriggled out of them, and then peeled off her yoga pants, revealing a, barely there, pink thong.

"Oh you're welcome." She said, before looking up at me quizatively. "You know, because we aren't an actual couple, we could do all kinds of experimental stuff without feeling weird about it." She said, and my eyes went wide. "Like, I've never done anal before because I've never felt comfortable enough with any of my boyfriends, but I think I could be comfortable with you." She paused for a second before adding, "You could try anal too if you want."

I looked down at her, freaked out. Miranda just laughed. "Oh my gosh, your face was priceless. One moment it was just full of joy and amazement, and the next if became horror and disgust. I'm only kidding, Dave. You don't have to do anal if you don't want to." Miranda said, relieving my fears. "Of course I still want you to do it to me." She added, nipping at my nose, playfully.

She wriggled out from under me, and I got up out of her way. She sat up and pulled down my underwear, unceremoniously, and took my already hard dick in her hand pumping away. She looked up at me after a moment, "Do you have lube?"

"Yeah." I breathed out, enjoying the quick motions of her hands pumping up and down my dick. She smiled and then deep throated the thing. "Oh god!" I let out, surprised at her quick movements, I wasn't expecting her to just down the thing so quickly. I felt the pressure building and then she quickly jerked away.

"Go get the lube. I think you're ready." She said smiling. I nodded and bounded up the stairs, flinging open my bedside table, to get the bottle. This wasn't romantic, or really even sexy, but it was certainly doing the job.

I came back downstairs and found Miranda tossing her thong on the floor. She smiled when she saw me. "Okay, oil 'er up." She commanded, and turned around, resting on her hands and knees, her back towards me. I applied generously and got behind her. "Just, be gentle." She said, turning her head to speak to me.

"Okay, yeah." I said. "It's okay, I know what I'm doing, I've done this before." I reassured her before slowly inching my way inside her ass. Of course Katie had been the one I'd done it with, and she'd actually had a lot of anal experience, so Miranda's ass was a bit tighter than Katie's had been, causing me to take it even slower to get in. Since I didn't want to hurt Miranda.

But finally I'd gone as far as I was willing to test, so I backed back out. "Whoa, that is weird." Miranda said, chuckling a bit. I had to laugh to.

"I've got to admit, I've never understood why a girl would want to do this." I told her as I started going back in, creating the rhythm. "I always imagined it felt like taking a shit." I added, causing Miranda to laugh, pushing her ass down further on my dick.

"Yeah, I'm feeling that right now." She said, and whispered, "Ow." I stopped immediately.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want." I told her, in all seriousness. The whole point of sex is to enjoy yourself, and if you don't like it, why do it?

"No, I've been told you just, gotta get used to it." She said. "Just, don't go real fast." She told me, and I started up again, being extra careful. "You know, maybe I should have tried this with someone a little smaller." She joked.

I chuckled, "Well, thank you for the confidence booster." I quipped back. I was going painfully slow, but the tightness alone was working its magic, and I could feel the pressure coming back.

"Oh!" Miranda squeaked out.

"Starting to feel better?" I asked.

"Actually, yeah." She responded. I felt my breath getting more shallow and I knew I wasn't going to last much longer.

"Okay, just to warn ya," I said, breathing heavily between words. "I'm gonna cum soon. So be expecting that." I warned her. "Ungh." I pushed into her, hard and she gasped in response. I felt my load empty into her and I slowly inched out, releasing the cock from her vice.

Miranda, fell down, face first into the couch, her ass still sticking up in the air. I leaned back, reclining against the pillows and caught my breath.

"That was weird." I heard her say, muffled by the cloth pressed up against her face. I chuckled.

"I take it anal's not for you, then." I remarked, smirking at her. She got up slowly and turned to face me, setting her but down, tenderly.

"I don't know, it wasn't so bad at the end." She told me, making a meh type of face.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't hate it." I said, laughing at her.

"This was good though, we should definitely do this more often." She said, smiling at me.

"I will not object to that." I replied.

* * *

_I realize that my story has strayed really far off of Makokam's PC, but I've decided to let you guys into my thought process. I can't tell you anything yet, because I'm afraid it might give away major plot points, but I promise by the end I'll explain how I've come up with this story off of PC. Also after writing most of this chapter I realized that Mindy has already shot a .44 Mag (it's the 2__nd__ gun she shot Dave with at the beginning, in the back, when she was training him in KA2) but I liked this version anyway, so I'm keeping it in here. Besides, it's my story, I don't have to be totally accurate, right?_

_Anyway, I know Dave and Miranda's sex isn't steamy or anything, but the way I imagine it, is that they are totally nonchalant about it. Like they have conversations during the middle of it and everything._

_Also, I just posted a little one-shot about Dave and Mindy that you guys should check out. It's shorter than a normal chapter for here, and it's mostly Mindy/Dave fluff. It's called Hit Girl's Baby Daddy, so please check it out :)_

_Okay guys, please review for me and let me know your thoughts! And thanks for reading!_


	20. Chapter 20

I can't believe I forgot about my own birthday. I accidentally punched Jennie in the face when she woke me up with breakfast in bed. Felt pretty bad about that, but Jennie said not to worry about it, even though I gave her a bloody nose. Thankfully I didn't break her nose or wind up giving her a black eye. Kim and Will thought it was hilarious though, so I guess it wasn't so bad.

The big deal is that it's my 16th birthday, so the Travis' made a huge deal out of it. I haven't ever had a big birthday, when I lived with daddy it was mostly just him giving me my gift and we would sometimes go out to dinner. Of course most of my gifts from daddy were weapons, while the gifts I got from the Travis family and my friends were more 'normal.'

Will and Jennie set up a big party in the backyard where a shit ton of people were there, most of them being people I wasn't even close with. There was music (thankfully not country, since Kim evidentially told her parents I wasn't fond of it) and a fuck ton of food. I have to admit that I had fun though, even thought I sort of felt stupid since Jennie insisted I wear a stupid 'Sweet 16' sash she'd bought at a party store along with a plastic crown. Patrick was there of course, and I got to dance with him and the others for a while before Will brought out this ginourmous cake that I had to blow out candles on, which I've never actually done before.

Kim told me I had to make a wish and the first thing that popped into my head was Dave. I really wanted to be able to see him again, for a moment I thought it was horrible of me since I had Patrick after all, but just because I wanted to see Dave didn't mean that I was interested in him like I was with Patrick. I just wanted to talk, really. I may have kissed him and sometimes think of him naked, but that's just part of being a girl, right? I just want my friend back.

And even though I'd eaten so much already we stuffed ourselves with the cake and ice cream too. Then Jennie announced that I had to open up my gifts. I had a lot actually, which kind of blew my mind. I wasn't aware I had so many people in my life that I was close enough to receive birthday gifts from them. Most of the gifts were money from people I wasn't actually close to, like Jennie's best girl friend and I got a iTunes card or two from some of Kim and Nick's cousins from Jennie's side of the family.

Kaylee had got me a gift card to the Forever 21 in the Greenville Mall that she swore we were going to next weekend to buy me some dresses. She nudged me and said, "Patrick obviously liked the one you'd borrowed from me, since after yer first date you've been stuck together." I blushed and then she leaned in to whisper, "And that homecoming dress obviously drove him wild." She added, grinning.

Patrick had bought me some gloves for wrangling, and also got me a necklace that had a little charm on it shaped like a horse. Kind of weird, since I never wear jewelry, but I suppose I should make the effort to remember to wear the necklace, since he put the effort into buying it for me.

Kim bought me a gift card to a Dicks sporting goods. I looked up at her like she had lost her mind, and she explained that she wanted to buy me some new shoes for running, saying she wanted me to coach her. "I figured shoes are a personal thing, so I'd let you pick 'em out." She said, explaining the gift card. "I don't like giving gift cards, but since it's something you gotta make sure fit ya, I figured it was the best way to go." She added smiling.

Nick gave me a phone cover that looked like an old school Game boy, which was one of my favorite gifts, honestly.

Will and Jennie gave me a large box that had a big bag inside. I wasn't sure what it was until I opened it and found jumper cables inside and some socket wrenches. Will and Jennie, as well as the rest of the party guests were standing around me cheesing when I looked up. I sat for a minute trying to figure out if this was really happening. Then Nick started fidgeting and grabbed my hand.

"Come on! Come see your big gift!" He called out to me, dragging me to the front of the house as a shiny black Camero came into view, sitting in the middle of the driveway. How the fuck did Will and Jennie afford a fucking Camero?

"Before you flip out, it's actually your gift from Marcus." Will said, coming up behind us. "Jennie and I are paying for your driving lessons though." He added, smiling.

The others had found their way to the front, I'm guessing to see a shrieking blonde teenager freak out about her sweet 16 gift, but I wasn't delivering.

"But… How?" Was all I could manage to say. Jennie laughed at my reaction.

"He gave us the money, we actually got a really good deal. He told us about the Camero that was impounded by the Greenville Police. It was actually a total steal." Will explained.

Of course, it's from Marcus. He knows how I like my cars. I'm sure if he left it up to Will and Jennie I'd have wound up with a F-150. Then I cracked a smile. Marcus hadn't forgotten about me. Even though he was in hot shit over my actions and about 500 miles away, he remembered my birthday. I felt choked up about it and had to clear my throat to keep from crying.

"Well, get in, we wanna see what you look like in it!" Kim yelled out excitedly. Will stepped forward and handed me the key fob. I smiled and took it, opening the door and sitting down in the driver's seat. Jennie was there in an instant, camera in hand, taking pictures of me.

Honestly the whole birthday experience was kind of surreal. I felt like I wasn't myself. I was sitting in a 2012 Camero surrounded by a bunch of people, some of whom I barely knew, while Jennie was taking pictures of me. I was thankful, but just kind of weirded out by it.

When it was nighttime and I had time alone in my room I remembered I was going to try and get to Mooresburg that night via Nick's borrowed bike. I had new information on a Brimstone Hell Hounds hangout I was planning on taking down. I sighed and sprawled out on my bed and wrestled with my thoughts.

After the birthday party I felt like my transition to normal girl was almost complete. Normal teenage girls have big parties and get gifts and have fun. They spend time with their boyfriends and get excited about homecoming. I was doing all of these things fairly successfully now. But at the same time, I was thinking about going after some biker gang from a couple towns over.

I meant what I told Marcus before I'd left. I was Hit Girl. It's who I am. But after coming to Cooper, there's a new side of me. Like Mindy has finally had the chance to be someone too. Maybe it was just because back then I hadn't made friends, I hadn't had a real chance to try being just Mindy.

Even though it was hard for me to just let it go, I thought of what Will and Jennie had done to give me a normal life. They just gave me a sweet 16 birthday party for fucks sake. And bought me a car. Well, not with their own money, but they were the ones to actually go get the car.

Hell, I'd been so preoccupied with the fucking Brimstone Hell Hounds I'd forgotten about my own birthday. But they deserved being hunted down and taken out. And I AM Hit Girl. That part won't just go away.

And the image of Kim's face that night in the hospital, sprayed with dried blood and tears streaming down her cheeks was etched in my memory. My head and my heart hurt trying to make sense of it all.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was past one in the morning. I crept down the hall to Nick's room and silently went in, closing the door behind me. He was actually still awake, playing a game on his computer. He looked up and saw me, his face illuminated by the screen.

He didn't smile, rather he looked uneasy. I couldn't blame him, since every other time I'd snuck into his room I'd scared the shit out of him, swearing him to secrecy. I smirked and sat next to him on his bed, laying back and crossing my ankles.

"Thanks for the birthday gift, I liked yours the best out of everybody's." I said quietly.

He smiled, "Really? More than the car?" He asked me surprised.

I chuckled quietly, "Well that's on a whole other level." I replied. He smiled and we sat in silence for a minute before I turned to him seriously.

"You know our little secrets aren't me sneaking out to hook up with Patrick or anything, right?" I asked him, hoping he somehow understood what was going on.

He bit his lips and looked up at me, as if he were unsure what to say. "I figured. If that were the case, why couldn't you ask Kim to cover for you?" He said.

I smirked again. "You're a smart kid." I told him, causing him to smile. I paused before I asked him anything else. "Do you think the people that hurt Kim and our class should be brought to justice?" I asked, very serious again.

He didn't hesitate to answer this time. "Yeah. Why not? They…" He trailed off and looked around, as if he were waiting for his mother to burst through the door. "They killed people… Because they were black like me." He whispered.

Kim's face popped back into my head and I looked at Nick for a while, adding the image of his fearful and sad face to my memory bank. I looked away after a while choosing my words.

"Do you think someone should take care of it if the police can't?" I asked him, still not looking at him, the image of his and his sister's faces circling in my head.

Nick didn't say anything. I didn't turn to look at him either. Finally he spoke up, "Like vigilante justice?" He asked me timidly. I snapped to look at him then.

"Yeah." I replied, looking right in his eyes. He faltered under my gaze.

"Is that what you're doing?" He asked me, so softly I almost couldn't hear him.

I turned away again, and stared at my feet. I didn't answer right away, I wasn't sure if I should or not. The less he knew, the better. But I was so starved to talk to someone about it. Damn Dave for even giving me that outlet in the first place.

"Yeah." I said steadily, still focusing on my feet.

I heard Nick click on the keys of his laptop, and then he tapped me on the shoulder. "Is this you?" He asked directing my attention to the screen. A blurry and horrible quality picture of Rough Riley was in the right corner, a Dallas newspaper article headline, "Texas' Own Superhero Takes Down Hate Crime Culprits," bold in the center of the screen.

I sprung forward, taking the laptop in my hands, and scanning over the article. It gave my alter ego name, and had just about every fact right. I had left all the information to tie them to the crime, I'd shot them, but not fatally, and left them tied up for the police, after calling it in on their own cell phone. It credited the photo from a shitty surveillance camera in the parking lot.

Thankfully the camera wasn't situated where my bike was, otherwise I'm sure it would have come up in the article that the superhero had made her getaway on a eleven-year-old's bike. I sat for a minute, letting it sink in. I looked at the date of the article and it had been published a few days ago.

I then realized the Travis' hadn't watched the news at night in the last few days. I started shaking my head. I looked over at Nick, and he was looking up at me, expectantly.

"Do your mom and dad know about this?" I asked him, pointing at the screen.

He paused, "Well, yeah. That day you went out with Patrick to the gun range is when it was on TV. Mom and dad told Kim and I not to mention it to ya, since superheroes were the reason you came here, or something." He paused again and then looked up at me ruminatively. "Why are superheroes a bad thing?" He asked me.

I looked at him for a moment before looking back at the screen. "Because it means there are bad people out there too." I said softly, staring at the grainy picture of myself.

"Oh." He replied, and stayed quiet.

"This is me." I answered him curtly. His eyes went wide but he stayed quiet. We both did.

Finally Nick spoke up. "I think it's a good thing." He said before adding hastily, "People going out and getting the bad guys when the police can't, I mean."

I smiled at him. "So does this mean you're going to keep helping me?" I asked him.

His face broke out in the biggest smile I'd ever seen on him before. He nodded vigorously, making me chuckle.

"Guess that makes you my sidekick then." I told him, seeing his eyes light up, and look like we was about to burst. Suddenly his mouth dropped open in shock and he started moving his hands around erratically, as if he couldn't get the words out fast enough.

"The car!" He whispered, getting on his knees, excited about his informational breakthrough. "You can get to Greeneville and Mooresburg in it, that way you don't have to borrow my bike!" Then his face fell. "Oh, but you don't have your license yet, you don't know how to drive yet do you?" He asked me.

I laughed, perhaps a little to loudly, and threw my hands over my mouth, looking over at the door, waiting for the sounds of stirring. But none came, so I turned back to Nick and smiled.

"I've been driving since I was ten." I paused for his reaction, which was priceless. "I've got my shit covered." I added winking, watching his eyes widen at the word, shit. I smirked.

"Well, get some sleep tonight." I told Nick, getting up and walking over to the door. I turned around to watch him looking after me smiling. I closed the door behind me and got back to my own room, lying down in bed.

"I've got my own little Dick Grayson now." I said to myself before I turned out the light and went to sleep.

* * *

_So I originally planned having a regular chapter with both Mindy and Dave POV's but then Mindy's got so long so I've just given you guys a Mindy centric chapter lol. But I promise Dave's chapter next time will be interesting (at least I think so). _

_I had trouble coming up with ideas for what I wanted her gifts to be. I thought about giving her the Mistmoblie too, but I figured Marcus is still in the frame of mind that he wants Mindy to be normal, so giving her the Mistmobile isn't going to be a good motivator for that motive lol. I still wanted her to get a pretty cool car though. I was thinking Nick would love it (I imagine him nicknaming it Bumblebee, since kid's his age are all into Transformers again). _

_Welp, that's all I can think of for author notes right now. Please let me know your feedback and pretty pretty please leave me a review! ;)_


	21. Chapter 21

Ina has joined the SAF. She told me that she did it for two reasons: one, that she supports the movement, and two, so she can keep me informed about what's going on.

"I could be the go between for the SAF and the superheroes." She said, taking a bite out of her taco. We were in Central Park for lunch, a place we'd found had areas secluded enough we could talk about Kick Ass stuff and still be quick catch-ups.

I scrunched up my nose, "I don't think you can be a go between, I mean, people can't know that you know Kick Ass personally." I told her.

"Oh, that's true." She said. "But I can still tell you what's going on. If you ever wanted to let us know something, I could tell you where we are meeting and you could show up in costume." She suggested.

I nodded, "Yeah, that could work." I told her.

"I think the group is great. I've only gone to one meeting, but it operates kind of anonymously. It's like AA, but we don't give names. There are even some celebrities there." She told me.

"Celebrities? What the hell?" I asked.

"Yeah, Megan Fox was there, and Nicholas Cage. Oh, and Samuel L Jackson." She said.

I did a double take. "So you're hanging out at least once a week with Samuel L Jackson and Megan Fox?" I asked her.

Ina laughed. "We aren't 'hanging out,' Dave. We are talking about issues and how we can combat them." She explained. "We're actually pretty excited about the celebrity turn out. Of course we all know who they are, even if they don't give us a name, so we've asked them to start publicly speaking about the issues."

"I should join." I said, not really paying too much attention to Ina anymore. I was imagining how Kick Ass could totally get Megan Fox to fuck him. Or at least get to see her up close and personal. I could talk with Megan Fox.

"You could, just as a civilian. No one would know." Ina said. "We've actually joked, asking if superheroes were among us." She added, laughing to herself.

I was still thinking of Megan Fox naked. Honestly being Kick Ass was the best thing that has ever happened to me.

"Dave?" Ina brought me back to reality.

"I'm definitely joining." I told her, smiling. Ina's face looked annoyed.

"This is serious, Dave. I don't want you coming just to flirt with celebrities." She scolded me.

I cringed a little bit. "Oh come on, Ina. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity." I pleaded. Ina sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Honestly, Dave. You're Kick Ass, you should care a little more about the issues than the hot girl." Ina said shaking her head. I smiled sheepishly.

"To change the subject, how are you feeling about tonight?" She asked me. I was reminded that I was going to meet with Marty this evening since it was fall break and Todd was going to be in town.

After Ina's constant nagging at me to forgive Todd, telling me it would help me find closure, not to mention mend a life long friendship, I'd finally decided to bite the bullet and meet with him.

I grimaced and looked at the ground, kicking the pebbles around that were under the bench we were sitting on.

"Dave." Ina called out to me, urging me to talk with her.

I looked up at her begrudgingly. "I'm not happy about it." I told her.

"That's not good, Dave. You need to do this from the heart, not just because I'm telling you to do it." She told me, resting her hand on one of mine.

"I know. I just…" I clenched my jaw together. I was still a little mad at him, but I was also embarrassed. I didn't want to apologize for beating the shit out of him. It had been so long, he's in college somewhere else making new friends. He could be totally different now. It's almost like it's too late, he's already gone, he's moved on. So what's the point?

"Dave, just think about all the great times you've spent together. He's your friend, and that part doesn't just go away so easily. If he's sorry and willing to talk with you at all, that's a good thing." Ina told me, trying to encourage me.

Ina was right of course. Ina's always right. Marty texted me later that afternoon, telling me that he wasn't going to come over at all and asked me to just hear Todd out. So I knew that it was Todd that wanted to talk with me, more than I wanted to talk with him, affirming Ina's suspicions.

I opened the front door to find Todd, standing there looking exactly like I'd left him, save for the blood and bruises. He smiled awkwardly, stuffing his hands in his pockets like he always did when he was nervous.

"Hey." He said, his voice cracking. I smirked, I couldn't help it.

"Come in." I said and closed the door behind him. We stood in the entryway for a minute before either of us said anything. Of course we both started talking at the same time. But I let him go first.

"I know you're still mad at me. Marty told me." Todd started, looking at me uncertainly. "But I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I was dumb, and there really isn't any excuse." He added hastily.

I sighed and looked off. "Yeah, you're a dumbass." I told him deadpan.

Todd stood for a moment not saying anything, a fearful look on his face. I thought if I made any sudden movements that he might flinch for fear of me kicking his ass again.

I hung my head, "I'm sorry I kicked your ass." I told him, biting my lip. Todd smiled, hopeful.

"It's okay. Don't even apologize, I totally deserved it." He said. "If beating the crap out of me made you feel any better, that's good."

I smiled now. "It did make me feel better, a little bit." I admitted.

Todd smiled wider, "Good. Marty said you've been training with Brad. Teaching him hero stuff?" Todd asked me, hopeful and trying to bring our friendship back to where it once was.

I nodded. "Yeah. He's pretty good. He actually threw a meat cleaver at a guy and knocked him out." I said excitedly, headed for the couch. Todd followed me. We sat down and it was like nothing happened. Our awkward time was over. We talked about Brad and the SAF and I even mentioned Night Bitch and I.

"You being Kick Ass does explain how all of a sudden you became some suave playboy." Todd said.

"Suave playboy? Are you shitting me Todd? I've only fucked with two girls." I asked him incredulous.

"Well, yeah. Katie's hot. And Night Bitch? She's a superhero for fuck's sake." Todd said.

"Okay, whatever you say, Todd." I replied.

"What about Hit Girl?" Todd asked me, looking hopeful.

"What is it with everyone asking about Mi-Hit Girl?" I asked him, getting worked up, and almost giving away Mindy's identity again.

"She's awesome! That's why. And she's so secretive." Todd answered. "So?" He asked me.

"I'm not fucking her, I already told you I've only been with two girls, Katie and Night Bitch." I answered.

Todd paused, "That's not what I was asking, Dave." He said, looking confused for a minute. Then his face broke out in a smile. "Why would you jump to that?" He asked me.

"What? No, I mean… It's because Marty's always… Stop looking at me like that. There is nothing going on!" I yelled at him, his grin just like Marty's when he suggested I'd fucked Mindy.

"Why are you getting so defensive? I was just asking a question." Todd replied, that same shit-eating grin on his face.

"No I'm not. I'm just…" I trailed off, annoyed by Todd's expression. "You're as bad as Marty. She's fifteen!" I said.

"I'm not saying you're fucking her. You brought that up all on your own." Todd said.

"Well you have that dumb look on your face!" I retorted.

"You're the one being all defensive about it." He replied.

"I'm not being defensive. Besides she's the one that kissed me!" I yelled at him.

Todd's eyes went wide. "You've kissed Hit Girl?" He asked me, being serious now.

I opened my mouth but no words came out. I closed my mouth and looked off to the side. "No, she kissed me." I replied, looked back at him. "That's what I said."

"Hit Girl kissed you?" Todd asked me, emphasizing you.

"I thought you were just going on about me being a suave playboy. Why's that so unbelievable?" I asked him, annoyed.

"Well, she's fucking Hit Girl, man." Todd answered. "She's… She really kissed you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Todd. She kissed me and then she left town. That's what happened." I told him, crossing my arms getting exasperated.

Todd sat there for a moment, then he pulled out his phone. "Did you know Dave KISSED Hit Girl?" Todd spoke. I looked over and he was talking on the phone to someone, probably Marty. I threw my head back, sighing.

"No, he just told me SHE kissed HIM." Todd spoke into the phone then pausing. "Yeah, you guys better come over here." He added, than shut the phone.

"Are you happy?" I asked him, giving him a look of contempt.

"No. This kind of makes Hit Girl seem less cool, actually. I mean, if she'd want to kiss you." Todd answered.

"What?! It was very cool. She even threatened me afterwards." I told him, defending Mindy.

"It was cool?" Todd asked me, confused.

"Yeah, she had just said some really inspirational shit, and then just leaned over and kissed me. Then she told me it was her first kiss, and told me to be nice or she'd rip my ass through my mouth." I told Todd.

"It was her first kiss? She wanted her first kiss to be with you?" Todd asked me, as if he didn't believe me.

"Yeah, I guess she did." I said, softly. Realizing for the first time that Mindy had wanted her first kiss to be with me. Me, Dave, who she knew fully well was not really any cooler for being Kick Ass.

"So you failed to mention that you kissed her." I heard Marty say and he and Brad were coming through the front door, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"It was her first kiss." Todd piped up.

Brad's eyebrows shot up. "Really? Dave! You're the first person Hit Girl's ever kissed? That's bad ass." Brad said.

"So you've kissed her and you didn't mention it. But you are really fucking adamant that you don't like her." Marty stated.

"Yeah, because I don't." I replied.

"Fuck that. Look how worked up about it you're getting. Seriously, Dave, it's like you're in sixth grade right now." Marty quipped.

"Yeah, you do get really worked up about her whenever we bring her up at all, whether or not we're insinuating you like her." Brad added.

I shot Brad a dirty look. "It's just because she's young, and… And I just… Miss her. Okay. She's like a… A fucking assassin or whatever." I replied, shaking my hands towards Brad, since he'd said the comics had her like some rogue assassin.

The three of them were quiet, but Marty was grinning. Finally he spoke up. "Dave…"

I cut him off, "No. I don't like her like that. She just kissed me and it was weird." I snapped.

"Dude, then why are you so pissed at us?" Brad asked quietly.

I sat there for a moment, looking at each of them. Other than Marty's stupid grin, the other two looked half shocked, and half sorry. I looked away and thought about it. Maybe I did like Mindy. Was that even possible?

But she's four years younger than me. Is that weird? But I have wondered about her body before. But that's just being a guy. I've wondered about what a lot of girls look like, like Miranda.

Who I'm now fucking. But that doesn't mean I want to fuck Mindy. I just wonder what she looks like. I'm just curious. Like I'd like to see Megan Fox naked. But I did hope to seduce her as Kick Ass.

I grunted and held my head in my hands.

"Oh my god. Is this real life?" Todd asked, looking at the others. "Does this mean you're going to stop teasing me about liking Hit Girl since Dave likes her now? And they've actually kissed."

"Definitely not. It makes you even more pathetic." Marty replied, sending Todd a matter-of-fact grin.

"Guys." I interrupted, catching their attention. "I. Can. Not. Like Mindy." I said, freaking out.

"Wait, what?" Brad asked.

Marty's eyes went wide. "Mindy?"

"Is that Hit Girl's real name?" Todd asked me, looking up at the others before turning back to me. "You know Hit Girl's secret identity?"

"That's like a huge step in your relationship, Dave." Marty stated, grinning again.

"Fuck." I said, just realizing I'd called her by her real name. "No. I… I knew her name from the beginning. I…" I was losing it then. I stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"Dave?" Brad called after me.

"Man, you can't run away from true love!" Marty yelled after me, snickering.

I sat down in front of the refrigerator, sliding down and pulling my knees into my chest. I stared at the wall, but my mind was thinking about Mindy.

I thought of her lips, how she always smirked and sometimes bit them when she was unsure of something. I thought of her hair, how it moved in the wind and caught the sun just right to shine golden. Her eyes, framed by her black mask, so green.

"Dave, are you okay?" I heard Brad call out softly, kneeling beside me.

"I think we broke him." Todd muttered.

* * *

_Well you got an all Mindy chapter last time, and now you get an all Dave chapter today. I actually was going to put both of them in here, but then this chapter got away from me lol._

_I know that Dave's reaction is kind of weird, but I think that this realization is something so unexpected and huge that it's a major deal for him. But don't worry, he's not going to stay weird forever :) I hope that what I'm trying to get across is understood lol._

_I hope you guys liked this chapter, if you did (or even if you didn't lol), please let me know and leave a review!_


	22. Chapter 22

I wish I were like Kaylee or Kim, life wouldn't be so confusing then. The biggest thing they worry about is getting zits or if their butt looks big in their jeans, while I'm over here having an existential life crisis.

I'm starting to feel like a crazy person, like I have multiple personality disorder or some shit. I'm Mindy, the girl dating Patrick and going clothes shopping at the mall with my friends, but I'm also Hit Girl, or in this case Rough Riley, who goes out at night to take on a local bigoted biker gang with guns and throwing knives.

The problem is that I liked both sides of me. I had fun going to the mall with Kim and Kaylee, trying on dresses that they threw into my pile that were completely ridiculous looking, just to have a good laugh. And spending an afternoon with Patrick, cuddling up during a movie at the theater, before ending the night back in his truck knocking boots.

But tonight's adventure was equally as fun. The adrenaline rush of taking on eight full grown men at once is pretty damn unmatchable. Not to mention sneaking out of the house and driving over to Mooresburg in my new Camero, without having my license yet, to kick those cocksuckers' ass. And I didn't even kill anyone.

But these two sides of me are so different that they can't coincide. I can't just tell Patrick or Kim and Kaylee that I'm taking a rain check on our plans to go wrangle up some demented assholes for the police.

So for the time being I have to do my Rough Riley work at night, which is cutting into my sleep schedule, but I'm Hit Girl, I'm a professional, I can handle it. Even if I did fall asleep during the movie Patrick took me to see a few days ago. He said he thought it was cute when I fell asleep on his shoulder.

Besides, if it bothers me, I can take it out on the fucking Brimstone Hell Hounds. Which I did. The group I took on tonight was smarter than their friends Scrappy and Rodger, which I enjoyed. Makes it more of a challenge.

I didn't know who any of them were this time, except for John Rocker, since he had his damn baseball bat with him. But I also had an audience, so that made it even more enjoyable, considering when I walked in, John was wailing on a poor Hispanic kid.

"Hey inbred fucker!" I shouted out above the commotion. Every head in the honky-tonk turned to look at me. I was standing in the doorway, hands on my hips, in full on Rough Riley regalia. Most of the patrons looked happy, if not relieved to see me. I noticed a few whispered excitedly between themselves. But John Rocker and his friends didn't look happy.

John stopped swinging down on the poor Latino guy and turned to focus his attention on me. He didn't relax his arms with the bat though, rather he stood ready to come swinging at me. I smiled underneath my red bandana knowing I'd caught his attention fully.

"What the fuck do you think you're doin' in my town?" I asked him. Jutting my hip out, letting my right hand fall down.

He cocked his head to the side and smiled creepily. I narrowed my eyes, he still thought he was in control, did he? Well I'd have to fix that. He didn't say anything, but slowly started walking towards me, bat in hand, still ready to strike. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the poor Hispanic guy scramble away.

"Your town?" He asked, smiling. "What makes you think this is your town?" He stopped about ten feet in front of me.

"I'm 'bout to show ya why." I replied, and grabbed the new whip I'd added to my arsenal with my right hand, snapping it on Rocker's hands, leaving deep gashes on this knuckles and fingers before he even had the chance to react.

I quickly reholstered the whip and threw several knives at the three guys advancing towards me afterwards. Rocker was kneeling on the floor now, his bat rolling around, and cradling his hands into his stomach. I had made direct hits with the knives, leaving the three others immobilized for the time being.

The other four in their group were now very interested. The patrons sitting around started moving away from both of us, but didn't leave, rather they crouched behind chairs and tables, hoping to catch a glimpse of our battle. I stretched out a hand and made a come hither motion, egging on the other Brimstone Hell Hounds to dare and take me.

One of them pulled out a handgun, and aimed it at me, another crouched beside Rocker, who was actually crying like a little girl, whining about his 'ruined' hands. The other two flanked the one with the gun. I stood for a minute, just to make the fucker with a gun think he'd actually scared me.

"Look 'ere missy, this here's a game for big boys." He warned me, cocking back the hammer.

"Fuck yer sexist stereotypes, dick face." I replied, leaping forward, reaching out and placing my hands on Rocker's shoulders, to flip myself above him, dodging the bullet fired at me. I landed behind him and took out two knives in each hand. I advanced toward the man with the gun and jabbed the knives into the stomach's of the two flanking him, using the leverage of my knives' position to kick the man with the gun backwards, using both feet.

I retracted my knives and put them back in my belt. Turning around to get the three I'd hit earlier, who were now coming back at me. I picked up my .44 in my right hand, firing three quick shots, hitting each man square in the thigh.

The man who had crouched beside Rocker was now up and wielding the bat, coming at me. He swung at me, but I ducked backwards missing his swing. I snapped back up and landed a side kick to his balls, effectively taking him down.

Now the only one left was the guy with the gun. I turned back to see him back up and cocking the hammer on his gun again. I darted to side, missing another shot and jumped off a table, landing on top of him. I started wailing on his head. I noticed he dropped his gun in shock and I smirked, knowing the battle was all but over.

I then took out the rope hanging from my hip and knotted up a lasso, flinging it around his head, and springing off of him, flipping over and landing on top of the bar behind him. I let the rope fall around his torso and pulled it tight. Then I sprang back on him, kicking him down, smashing his face into the floor.

I snapped my attention to Rocker, whose eyes were wide, and I came over and crouched down in front of him. He scrambled back from me as best as he could, without the use of his hands.

"Look 'ere, fucker. This is my town now. And I don't wanna hear 'bout ya causin' trouble no more." I told him, narrowing my eyes at him. He shook his head vigorously. "Good." I said, and took out my other .44 and shot him in the shoulder.

Rocker screamed out in pain. "Oops!" I said, bringing my hand to my mouth's location underneath my bandana, in mock pity.

I was walking toward the exit when the poor Hispanic guy Rocker had been beating, called after me. I turned around and he came up to me, a smile on his face.

"You're Rough Riley aren't ya?" He asked me, excited. I nodded yes. "Thank you!" He said, and reached out to give me a hug. I was a little startled, but patted him on the back in return. When he let go I tipped my hat in his direction.

"Do me a favor, will ya?" I asked him. I could see the other patrons had climbed up from their hiding positions, and were congregating around us, all looking both relieved and celebratory.

The Hispanic guy nodded his head yes. "Tell the police I got some more of them Brimstone Hell Hounds for 'em." I told him and turned around and walked out.

.

.

.

I had pulled into the drive, parking my Camero. and grabbed the gym bag beside me that had my Rough Riley disguise and equipment in it. I'd decided to change before getting back to the house, just in case someone saw me sneaking back in the house, and I'd made a good decision since after I crawled into Nick's window he was awake and waiting for me.

"Mom and dad know you took the car somewhere. I didn't know what to do." He told me. I dropped my bag on the floor in shock. "I'm sorry." He added and I walked into the hall to find Will and Jennie standing there, looking very unhappy.

* * *

"Do you think Mindy will come back now, with all the SAF stuff going on?" I asked Marty as we were marching down the street in an SAF organized protest. I had to hand it to the SAF, they worked fast.

They had organized a march through Manhattan that ended in Times Square. There were hundreds if not thousands of people marching, people that weren't even members, and more people joined in as we marched down the street.

"The fuck would I know, Dave. She's your friend." Marty replied. I could hear Brad chuckle behind us.

"You're so cute now." Brad said snickering. I sighed, annoyed with their behavior. Despite Marty's answer to Todd, about not stopping his picking on him for liking Hit Girl because I did now, Marty was focusing all his ridicule on me now. And he'd somehow recruited Brad in the process.

Of course that may be because it's much easier, being that I'm here in New York and Todd is way over in Michigan. But it still doesn't make it any less annoying.

I've accepted that I'm… Into Mindy. I'm not going to drop the 'L' word on it just yet, I can say I 'like' Mindy, but I'm not going over into the big 'L' any time soon. Besides she's not even in the city anymore, she could have left the country for all I know.

Anyway, after freaking out about it for an hour or so I finally got up off the floor, and addressed my friends. But now that I've come to the realization that I like Mindy, it's almost as if she's all I can think about. And I miss her more than ever.

And I want her back. I even joined the SAF in hopes it would bring Mindy back. Ina said it couldn't hurt to be a part of the group, and that it could bring Mindy back. But she was careful to note she wasn't guaranteeing anything since she didn't know Mindy personally.

But the first public demonstration the SAF was doing was this march, and if that didn't catch Mindy's attention I didn't know what would. Even if I had to face Marty and Brad's ridicule, just because I have… Feelings for a girl.

By the time we were nearing the end of the march though, the streets were crowded with marchers, protesters, and TV crews trying to get footage. The pretty Italian girl I'd rescued from the prostitution ring in Little Italy was in the front, along with other founders of the group, and they were responding to the media's questions.

"What do you think she's even doing?" I asked Marty and Todd, as we rounded a corner. I could hear Marty sigh and I shot him a look.

"Maybe she's just hiding out. Or maybe she's pulling a Batman and doing some training with the League of Shadows. To come back and crack some skulls." Brad offered, chuckling to himself.

"Dude, who the fuck knows what she's doing? If anyone had any guesses, it's gonna be you." Marty added.

I started to wonder about Mindy's guardian, Marcus I think was his name. He might know where she is. I was wondering how I could get a hold of him when the first explosion went off.

Marty, Brad and I were near the middle of the crowd but even though we weren't where the explosion went off, we could still feel the tremor of the ground. Everyone started running towards us, and I could see the big screens of Times Square ahead of us, all in static.

Unlike the others, my first reaction was to run towards the chaos. I knew Ina was ahead of us, plus the poor Italian girl I'd rescued only weeks earlier. I started running forward when the second explosion went off. I was so close to it that I was literally flung forward. I was flying in the air, and flinging my arms around, but then I centered myself, and tried to make sure I landed without breaking my arms or legs.

I wound up landing on top of a parked car, flung on top of it from the left. I landed on my back and my ass, so I had the wind knocked out of me, but I wasn't injured. So after getting my bearing I got up (albeit slowly) and went looking for Ina.

"Ina! Ina!" I called out for her. I doubt she could have heard me though, the sound of the explosion was still ringing in my ears, plus all the screaming going on was almost deafening.

I came up on a body that was face down in the street, and couldn't pass it up. I turned it over to see that it was a young man, about my age. He coughed and sputtered blood out of his mouth. I grimaced and helped him sit up.

"Hey man, hold on!" I had to yell at him to be heard. Another explosion went off, but it went off further down the road, the road that most people were running down, to get away from the previous explosions.

"Shit!" I heard a voice yell beside me and saw Marty standing there with Brad behind him cowering. I motioned at them and they came over.

"Get this guy some help, and help all you can, I'm going after Ina." I yelled at him and Marty took the guy out of my hands.

By now the air was thick with smoke and ash, and it was getting hard to see and breathe. I could hear police sirens approaching but I didn't register any of this. I was looking for Ina.

"Ina! Where are you?!" I shouted out for her again.

"Dave?!" I heard a reply from far away. I surged with hope, hearing her voice. I ran towards the direction of her voice. I could make out the shape of a person running towards me and as I got close, I saw Ina covered in ash and ruffled, but seemingly unharmed.

"Oh my god, Ina, are you okay?" I asked her, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into a hug, before stepping back to get a good look at her, just to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"I'm okay. Those of us right in the front weren't hurt. But some of us behind were. How many have gone off?" She asked me frantic.

"Three I think." I answered as another explosion went off further away. We both snapped our heads in the direction of the explosion and then the smoke and ash around us illuminated. I could make out that the giant screens around us had turned on, a blue light glowing out of them.

Then a face popped up on the screens and loud laughter echoed through the area. Every screen had the same image on it. A manically laughing Chris D'Amico.

* * *

_Lots of action in this chapter. And I had trouble with Dave's chapter, getting it the way I wanted it. So please let me know what you think of that._

_Also I know that I started off Mindy's part talking about her feelings about the evening and ended it without ending the evening, but I kind of wanted to leave both parts in a sort of cliffhanger lol. _

_Also I'm sorry if I offend anyone by kind of pooping on John Rocker (I have gotten a review though that someone was happy about it lol) I honestly don't know much about him, nor do I even pay attention to sports. But I liked the idea of an ex pro baseball player beating up people with a baseball bat. So that's why he's in here._

_Okay, please let me know your thoughts, suggestions, and feelings about this chapter! Thanks for reading!_


	23. Chapter 23

So now I'm grounded. Kim tells me I got off super easy, and that she's jealous, muttering something about injustice. I guess the choice to go for waterworks, was a good one, since it totally worked on Will and Jennie, unlike Marcus, who's seen and knows all my tricks.

But I was nervous, my heart pounding when I saw them in the hallway. I wasn't nervous about any punishment, more that they were going to figure out exactly what it was I had gone out at night to do.

But I just bit my lip and decided to go an old school teenager route: I'd snuck out to hook up with Patrick. Albeit, that's not something Will and Jennie were going to be happy about, but it was a lot better than the alternative.

"Do you wanna tell us what you're doing out so late at night? Driving without a license, no less?" Jennie spoke up, and I could see Kim's door crack open a bit behind them, her head peeking out to see the commotion.

I stood there for a minute, not saying anything. I'd actually never been faced with this problem before. With Marcus, he knew the truth, but with Will and Jennie, I had to act like I was actually doing normal teenage behavior, but still act sorry that I'd been caught.

I just started sobbing. Buying time before I came up with an act in my head. This caught Will and Jennie off guard. Which worked to my advantage. Will's shoulder's slumped and Jennie came over to me, wrapping her arms around me and lead me to my bedroom. She sat down on my bed with me and reached for some tissues on my nightstand, wiping the crocodile tears from my face.

I sniffled, as if I were trying to contain my tears. "Now, now." Jennie cooed, looking over at Will and shooting him a look. He walked away.

"I'm sorry. I…" I trailed off, letting out a new stream of tears and sobs. Jennie rubbed my back and sighed.

"I know being a teenager is confusing, but you can't just go out at night, especially driving without a license. You could have gotten yourself hurt." She told me, serious but comfortingly.

"I know, I'm so sorry." I wailed out, sniffling again. Jennie sighed again.

"What exactly was it you were doin?" She asked me.

I looked up at her face, full on puppy dog eyes in play. "I went to see… Patrick." I told her, timidly.

Jennie looked away and pursed her lips before responding. "Mindy… You are being… Safe with him, aren't you?" She asked me and I went beet red.

Jennie was going there. I was having my first awkward sex talk.

"I remember what it's like to be a teenager, you don't have to pretend like you're not… intimate with Patrick." She told me.

I sat there, looking back and forth between Jennie and the wall, trying to escape the entire conversation.

"I just wanna be sure you're bein' safe about it." She added, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear. "I don't know if Marcus ever… Talked with you about this sort of thing…"

"No! I mean, yeah, he gave me the whole spiel." I interrupted, chuckling nervously.

Jennie smiled, "Good. So you know all about the dangers of not bein' safe?" She asked me.

"Yep! I do. He covered it all." I said, trying to get this over with as quickly as possible.

In honesty, Marcus and I hadn't talked about it. Daddy had given me the talk about getting my period, but neither he nor Marcus had talked about sex, or being safe with it. I just sort of figured that on my own. Marcus was more worried about me going out to kill bad guys than worrying about my sex life, which was pretty non-existent at that point, due to Hit Girl preventing my social life from blossoming. And either way, I did not want to talk with Jennie about my sex life.

"Well, you're grounded." Jennie told me, getting up to leave.

"Okay." I answered meekly.

"Because of the car thing." Jennie added. "And if you need anything, or want to talk about anything…" She made gestures with her head and hands. "You can talk to me anytime, Mindy." She finished, smiling.

"I will. Thanks." I told her smiling awkwardly and she left me in the room alone, closing the door behind her. I flopped backwards on my bed, and lay there for a minute, staring at the ceiling.

Then I heard the door open and I looked up to see Kim slipping in. "What did you do? Where'd you go?" She whispered.

I sighed, not wanting to go through this again. "I went to see Patrick." I told her and she slapped her hands over her mouth.

"Oh my god," She said and removed the hands, revealing a grimace. "Mom just gave you the talk didn't she?" She asked. "Oh my god. How much trouble are you in? Although, gettin' the talk from my mom is punishment enough." She added, making a gagging motion with her finger.

I smiled and laughed. "I'm grounded." I told her.

"That's it? If I'd done that, mom and dad wouldn't let me… No, they'd just get rid of the car!" She said, sounding shocked and jealous at the same time.

"Well, I'm a first offender, right?" I asked, shrugging my shoulders.

"This is so unfair." Kim pouted.

"Kim, you need to go to bed!" I could hear Will shout from the hallway, and Kim jumped. She made a scared face towards me, and got up to leave.

I flopped back down again and then shot back up when I remembered that I'd left my gym bag in Nick's room.

"Damn!" I whispered to myself. I crept to the door, and peeked out, to see it was dark and empty. I cautiously crept to Nick's room, and slipped in. He wasn't asleep yet, but the lights were off, save for a lamp on his desk.

Nick looked up at me from his bed, where he had my gym bag open, and had been rummaging through it. He smiled sheepishly at me and slowly placed a revolver back in the bag.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. I grabbed the bag, and leaned in close to him. "Don't touch anything. You're gonna hurt yourself." I warned him, and hoisted the bag on m shoulder and peeked out in the hall again. Still clear, I snuck back into my own room, and quickly hid the bag in its hiding spot up in the attic.

It could have been worse. Will and Jennie could have found out what I was really doing. Taking one for the cause, I guess. Besides, having an awkward sex talk is another thing I can check off of the Mindy's becoming a normal girl list.

* * *

I stood in the middle of the street, my arms still wrapped around Ina. The image of Chris clad in leather and chains and his face contorted in laughter sent a chill down my spine. I felt my heart beat quicken and I was glued to the spot.

"Thought you'd gotten rid of me did you, Kick Ass?" His voiced boomed out on the street. "I told you, I'm an evil Jesus! You can't kill me!" He boasted, and laughed again.

"Dave?" I could hear Ina calling, softly, and fearfully. But I didn't turn to look at her. My eyes were glued on Chris' face. I couldn't understand. I'd watched him fall into the shark tank, the cloud of blood, and he didn't resurface. How the fuck is he alive?

"Let this be a message to all you superheroes." Chris warned, turning serious. "Don't fuck with me." He paused to smile deviously. "As for the police, I'm sure I'll be able to divide your attention enough to get what I want." He leaned forward, and all you could see was his face. "Which is Kick Ass' head on a fucking plate."

I could feel Ina's arms, trying to shake me, to get my attention, but I was still transfixed on the video feed.

Chris leaned back and smiled again. "It's a new dawn, and if uncle Ralphie thought he could stop me, he was sadly mistaken. Nothing. Will stop me. This is between me and Kick Ass." He leaned in close to the camera again. "And I know you're in that fucking march. Bitch like you couldn't stay away from some sappy shit like that." He leaned back again. "Okay, turn it off." He said, looking off to the side.

I turned to Ina now, seeing her face full of sorrow and fear.

"I don't know, just fucking turn it off!" I heard booming out, and looked up at the screens again, seeing Chris flailing about, clearly pissed off. "Jesus Christ, how hard is it?!" He screamed and then the screens went blank.

I heard a chuckle behind me and turned around to see Marty standing there with Brad. "What a dick." Marty said, smiling. I grit my teeth together and fought the urge to slap Marty across the face.

"Marty, he just…" I motioned to the chaos around us, and shot Marty a look. The smile fell off of his face.

"Dave, are you okay?" Ina asked me, rubbing my on the shoulder, trying to get my attention, more than in a comforting manner.

I turned back to her, and I felt my heart beat quicken again. She looked so sad, yet she looked frightened. She was clearly trying to keep me sane., while still being scared herself.

"You're moving in with me." I told her flatly. She took a step back, and looked confused.

"Dude, I thought you were into Hit Girl?" Marty piped up. I shook my head.

"No, the last time I didn't take Chris seriously he killed my dad." I said, and looked at Ina. "I'm not going to let another person I care about get killed." I told her.

"Dave, It's going to be fine!" She tried to console me.

"No! He knows who I am. You're in danger. You all are." I said, looking over at Marty and Brad.

They all stood there, not saying anything. I bit my lip and squeezed my eyes shut. I sighed and opened my eyes. "Let's get your things, right now." I told Ina and took her hand, leading her down the street, trying to find a cab.

"What? What about us?" Marty called out, following us.

"Ina doesn't know how to throw meat cleavers, or have a tazer to protect her." I answered.

I came up on a blockade, crowded with police and EMTs. I fought our way through, explaining we hadn't been hurt, and finally was able to hail a cab and the four of us rushed into Ina's apartment.

"I really don't think this is necessary, Dave." Ina said as I ran into her bathroom and threw open her medicine cabinet. Grabbing random things.

"Nice place." I heard Marty mutter.

"No, this is very necessary, Ina." I told her, and then turned to Marty and Brad. "Get some bags, pack up necessities." I told them.

Ina saw that I wasn't changing my mind, and either thought it was best to just go with it, or hopefully realized that this was a real threat, and this was the best option. So she opened up a closet and pulled out an assortment of luggage and handed one to Brad, and one to Marty. I came over and dumped the things I'd taken out of her medicine cabinet.

"Do we need to go so fast? Do I have time to fold my clothes first?" Ina asked me.

I looked up at her, "Better not to chance it." I answered.

"Okay. Hey! I can pack my own underwear, thank you." She yelled at Marty, who was opening up dresser drawers. He backed away, holding his hands up in defeat.

"Should I pack her food?" Brad asked, not sure what to do.

"Sure, uh, dry goods." I replied and went back into the bathroom, stuffing everything into the luggage bag I had.

After a good twenty minutes, Ina declared she had everything she needed and we left. After a short cab ride, we arrived at our destination.

Uh, Dave…" Marty started, slowly getting out of the cab. "Where are we?" Both Brad and Marty were standing, looking around, apprehensive.

"Is this not where you live?" Ina asked me as I singlehandedly emptied the trunk of her luggage.

"No, it's not where he lives." Marty said, coming over to me. "What the fuck, dude? This is a shitty part of town." He exclaimed before softly adding, "Why are we here?"

"Chris knows who I am, Marty, I can't stay at home." I told him, shoving a piece of luggage towards him. Brad picked up two bags and followed me as I walked over towards the door.

Ina looked very worried. I was sure she was about to stop me and start an intervention, thinking I was having a mental breakdown. I'm sure that's what Brad and Marty were thinking.

The cab drove off, and I heard Marty whisper something to Brad. "Will you get the door for me, Ina?" I asked and she opened the door to the complex. The inside was dingy and reeked of smoke and other unmentionable scents.

"Um, Dave, I don't want to sound… Unappreciative, but where the fuck are we?" Marty asked, clearly concerned.

I didn't answer and just walked down the hall and down a flight of stairs, into the basement, until I came to the door, and set down the luggage. I tapped in the four-digit code, and door clicked open. I picked up the luggage, and stepped inside, the lights automatically flicking on as I stepped over the threshold.

I turned around to see the three of them with wide eyes, and open mouths. No doubt they were taking in the interesting decorations on the walls.

"Welcome to safe house C." I told them.

* * *

_I'm not thrilled with how this chapter turned out, but it's gotta be made, just so the story can progress lol. I don't have much else to say, so please leave me your thoughts, opinions, and guesses as to what's going to happen next (always cool to get those lol)._

_Thanks for reading folks!_


	24. Chapter 24

"Does this mean you're not gonna be able to practice with me for a while?" Patrick asked me at school on Monday. I'd told him I'd been grounded for going for a joyride. I didn't mention that I'd told the Travis' that I'd been to see him, since then he'd ask questions about what it was I actually did.

"Yeah, I think so." I answered, sadly.

"Well that competition is coming up, are you still gonna go?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah!" I said, slapping my palm against my forehead. "I forgot about that." I told him.

He smiled. "Well that's okay. I was starting to get worried the student had surpassed the teacher, so maybe it's better this way." He told me, smirking.

What did that mean? Was that a complement, or something else? I chuckled nervously, not sure what to say or do. But then the bell saved me, and we both went to our respective classes.

I sat down next to Billy Evans, who was Kaylee's date to homecoming. I sat next to him in history pretty much everyday. We talked, and had gotten pretty friendly, mostly since neither Kim nor Kaylee were in that class with me. So Billy and I talked.

I'm not the sharpest one when it comes to matters of the heart, but it was painfully obvious that Billy had a serious thing for Kaylee. Yet she was equally as painfully unaware. At least he'd gotten to go to homecoming with her.

Mr. Gladstone, had told us at the beginning of class to split into pairs to work on a project coming up so Billy and I were sitting together, looking over our notes. Billy however was unusually quiet today. I wondered if news had traveled that I'd snuck out at night to take a joyride in my new car to go fuck with Patrick. I was wondering if Patrick had heard the rumors yet when Billy shook me out of my thoughts.

"Mindy, you know I work on the Welder ranch right?" He asked me, and I felt my face go hot. Was he going to ask me if I'd actually gone to fuck Patrick? I understand Kaylee or Kim asking me, but Billy?

"Um, yeah…" I answered, tentatively.

Billy was looking at me with sad eyes, before quickly looking down at his notebook and I noticed his hands were clenched into fists.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. He looked up at me and then looked around the classroom, as if to make sure no one could hear us.

He leaned in close, "I don't know if I should be the one ta tell ya this." He started.

I was very intrigued, that sort of talk lead to big confessions. Was he going to confess his love for Kaylee to me, begging for my intervention?

He looked around again, but it wasn't possible for anyone to overhear us since the noise level was so high with others talking. "I just can't… It ain't the Cooper way of doin' things." He told me, looking very serious.

I raised my eyebrow, now I wasn't sure where this was going. "What's not the… Cooper way?" I asked him, feeling awkward.

"Honestly, I'm sorry I haven't told you sooner, since you're friends with Kaylee…" He said and then hastily added, "And Kim."

I held back a snicker by biting the inside of my cheek. "Okay." I said, trying to stay calm when Billy was so worked up.

"I overheard Patrick in the barn the other day… And I'm not sure if anyone else knows this, but…" He trailed off and I sat back in my chair. The look on his face didn't mean this was good news.

"And?" I prodded him, leaning back in.

"I don't think Patrick ever broke up with his girlfriend." Billy told me.

I sat for a minute before asking, "What?" I wasn't sure what Billy was telling me.

"I heard Patrick on the phone with his girlfriend in California. She's supposed to be comin' in town in a few weeks. He sounded really… Chummy with 'er." He said.

I blinked a few times before responding. "Well maybe they stayed friends." I offered.

Billy turned away before softly whispering, "Boys don't talk to their friends like that."

I sat back in my chair and let it sink in. "So you're telling me Patrick is cheating on me." I asked.

Billy looked up at me again. He looked really sad. "No, I'm saying I think Patrick's cheating on his girlfriend… With you."

The bell rang to let class out for lunch, but I didn't move. Billy tapped me on the shoulder, but I didn't look up at him. I don't know how long I sat there, but I know Mr. Gladstone tried to talk to me too. I didn't move or do anything until I heard Kaylee's sweet voice cooing at me.

"Mindy? You gonna be okay?" She asked softly.

"Billy came and found us, he told us what he told ya." Kim said, and I felt her hands rest on my arm, trying to console me. I looked up and saw both of them with Billy behind them. I stared at them for a minute before snapping up out of the chair and running towards the cafeteria.

I could hear my heart thumping in my ears and I could hear my breath in my head. I stopped in front of the table and Patrick looked up at me. He smiled at patted the seat next to him, motioning for me to sit next to him. I narrowed my eyes and then looked at his friends.

"Did you know? Do you all know?" I asked them, verging on hysteria.

"Mindy?" I could hear Kaylee calling out meekly behind me.

Patrick's friends just looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I did look crazy, but these bitches had no idea how crazy I can get.

"Did I fucking stutter? I asked you if you knew your friend is fucking another girl behind his girlfriend's back!" I said, coolly. I had reigned in my emotions now.

I noticed most of them backed up, looking frightened of me, a few of them stole glances over at Patrick.

I snapped my head over to look at him and narrowed my eyes. He didn't say anything and he didn't look apologetic either. Finally he spoke up, "Mindy, why don't we go out in hall and talk about this?" He offered and I chuckled.

"No. Cause people in this school think you're some fucking saint, but you're not are you?" I said, loudly, and the lunchroom went silent. I smirked.

Patrick looked around, probably taking in all the faces looking in our direction, but I wouldn't know since I didn't take my eyes off of his face. "Look, Mindy, Let's just..."

I cut him off, "No. I don't want to hear your excuses. You're a sorry sack of shit."I said and I picked up the lunch tray of one of his friends nearby, flinging the food into her lap. I stepped up on the table and watched with glee as Patrick's eyes went wide and his arms went up to shield his face.

I brought the tray down on his head hard and he fell backwards off the bench. I then flung the tray down at him, hitting him square in the throat with the side of it. Obviously it didn't do anything other than knock the air out of him. But I smirked and got back down.

I looked over at Kim and Kaylee, who had Billy behind them still and each of their faces were in full on shock. Finally Kaylee cracked a smile and laughed. "Oh my god, I can't believe you just did that." She said. I just shrugged my shoulders.

.

.

.

Kim, Kaylee, and I were sitting back in our usual spot from the previous year finishing up our lunch.

"I can not believe that Patrick did that." One of the girls at our table said.

"I know, I thought he was so nice." Another spoke up.

I just took a bit of my sandwich and stayed silent. I wanted to go home. Not home to the Travis' but back to New York. I wanted to forget that any of this had ever happened.

I felt Kaylee's arm wrap around my shoulders and pull me tight, "At least Mindy kicked his butt!" She said and smiled.

I smiled back weakly, but I meant it. "Yeah, Mindy gave him a clear message!" Kim added and the other girls giggled and nodded in agreement.

"I know, I can't believe you did that! It was crazy!" One girl said, making me smile wider.

"It was amazing!" Another added.

I looked at the girls around me, each of them looking at me, not with pity but admiration. I felt my heart swell, despite the ordeal it was going through. I had never felt this way before. I had never had a group of people rally around me before.

I felt Kim's hand rub my back and looked over at her smiling at me. I clenched my jaw and thought about how strong she must be to be comforting me when my… 'Boyfriend' had cheated on me, when her homecoming date had his head blown off only a little more than a month ago.

Then I realized it wasn't her strength, but her love. This is what friendship is. She knew I needed someone to make me feel better, even if it was a petty incident when compared to her own predicament. She pushed her feelings aside to focus on me.

I could feel my eyes welling up and then a single tear fell down my cheek. Kim's face fell and she reached out to hold me. I felt Kaylee's hands rub my back and they both softly cooed to me: 'it's going to be okay,' and 'who needs him anyway?'

After trudging to the bathroom for privacy and Kim and Kaylee wiping my face raw with toilet paper, I felt better. I had cried over a boy, but it was over. I didn't have to care about it anymore.

And by the end of the day when the three of us were walking home I was feeling so much better I didn't even notice the cop cars spotted around town. None of us did. But when were a block away from home Nick ran up to us, a bewildered look on his face.

"What is wrong with you, you little weirdo?" Kim asked trying to push him away. Nick shook his head and looked at me with wide, fearful eyes.

I got the hint and urged Kaylee and Kim to go ahead while I talked with Nick, muttering something about a secret Christmas plan.

"What's up?" I asked him cautiously.

"There's a New York police officer in our house asking to see you." He answered and I felt like I was going to throw up.

* * *

_Whoo! So needless to say this is a huge chapter for Mindy lol. I know a lot of you will be happy that Patrick isn't Mindy's BF anymore, but I didn't just write him out because you guys didn't like him. I had planned this from the beginning._

_I think it's important for people to have other relationships so they learn from them and can appreciate when they have a good one. That's what I've done with Mindy and Patrick._

_Anyway, Dave will be back next chapter. Please leave me reviews about your thoughts, opinions, and cheers that Patrick is gone ;)_

_And just because I'm so generous, I'm going to give you a teaser of a chapter to come ;) (Also because I think this part is hilarious and don't want to wait to share it with you lol)_

.

Mindy then unzipped her jeans and took them off. Dave's eyes went wide and looked around, bewildered. Mindy then pounced on Dave, and crawled up him. Dave backed up, with her on top of him, not sure what was going on.

.

_Tee hee, think on that why don't ya!_


	25. Chapter 25

"Do you think you have enough guns, Dave?" Marty asked, the first one to say anything.

I turned around to look at the walls covered from ceiling to floor with varying types of firearms. "I don't know. She'd probably buy more if she had the room." I answered, turning back to the three of them.

"She?" Brad asked.

"Yeah, this is Hit Girl's place." I told them. Marty's face suddenly changed to one of fear.

"Is it okay for us to be here?" He asked, fearfully.

I laughed. "Yeah, she left it to me. This is an emergency. She'd be okay with you guys being here." I said and walked further into the room. "Come on and shut the door behind you." I commanded them.

They walked fully into the room. Brad and Marty were inspecting the various guns and weapons hanging on the walls, but Ina was immediately drawn to the glass case in the corner holding the Big Daddy costume.

"Is this Big Daddy?" She asked me, pointing at the case.

"Yeah, that's his suit." I told her, coming up next to her. I noticed Brad and Marty did as well.

"Wow." Brad said.

"I wonder if he was any good, I mean no one's ever seen him in action. Only the video where he got the shit beaten out of him." Marty pondered.

Ina looked over at Marty, "Then he was set on fire and burnt alive." She noted and Marty cringed under her gaze.

"Well, yeah. Exactly. He doesn't seem so impressive. But Hit Girl is like a fucking ninja assassin." Brad replied.

"He must have been the shit to work with her, right?" Marty asked, looking at me. All three of them looked over at me and I turned and looked at the costume behind the glass.

"Big Daddy was fucking insane." I said deadpan. No one said anything so I continued on. "He trained his five year old daughter a hundred ways to kill a man."

"Okay, well I didn't say he was in a sane state of mind, but, I mean, he had to be really bad ass to teach her." Marty said.

"He was really frightening." I replied and turned away, taking the bag I knew had Ina's bathroom contents in it and took it into the bathroom, to unload it.

"I wonder if there's any secret passages in here!" I heard Marty say excitedly and I yelled out to him.

"Don't touch anything!"

"You don't have to tell me not to touch anything." Ina replied and went into the bathroom with me to help unpack. Everyone was silent for the entire length of Ina's unpacking.

Finally done, I hopped up on the kitchen counter. Marty and Brad were just looking around at all the weapons, but Ina was looking at me.

"So what are you going to do?" Ina asked me.

I sighed, "I don't know yet." I told her. And slid off the counter and searched for news on the computer.

"Shit!" I yelled out.

"What?!" I heard Marty and Brad say in unison, all three of them rushing over to look at the news on the computer.

"Oh my god!" Ina said softly, clasping her hands over her mouth.

"Oh fuck, man." Brad murmured.

Marty was just shaking his head in disbelief.

I clicked on the video link and the newscaster started speaking. "A devastating loss today as the self proclaimed super villain, the Mother Fucker, has set off two separate terrorist attacks simultaneously in New York. Interrupting a protest march lead by the Superhero Allies Foundation, or SAF as their known, he set off a serious of deadly bombs in Times Square, killing dozens. He commandeered the screens and gave a video message to the public, and one superhero in particular."

The video cut to a section of Chris' speech taped on a shaky cell phone before cutting back to the newscaster. I was sitting in the chair, my arms wrapped around my head in disbelief.

"At the same time as the attacks in Times Square, the super villain bombed JFK airport, killing hundreds of passengers and employees. He also commandeered screens in the airport with the same message." The reporter said.

"Fuck!" I cried out, and turned off the video, pushing the chair back, holding my head in my hands.

"Dude this guy has some major balls." Brad said softly and I heard Ina hit him. She knelt beside me, trying to get in my line of sight.

"Dave?" She said softly.

"What… What if I can't?" I said slowly, looking up at her then looking at Brad and Marty behind her.

"Can't what, Dave?" Ina asked me, resting a hand on my knee, trying to capture my attention.

"What if I can't kill him?" I asked. I felt tired, I wanted to curl up in a ball and just go to bed, to wake up tomorrow and this all to be a bad dream. But I knew that wasn't going to happen.

I had no fucking clue what I was going to do. I had no clue what Chris' plan was, and he had actually succeeded in bombing the city this time.

"Dave, you are a super hero." Ina said, using her therapist commanding voice. "You're going to make this right, it's what you do." She said and took my head in her hands, forcing me to look her in the face. "I believe in you, and all those people in that march today believe in you." She told me. "Where's that passion you showed me that day in my office when you told me you were Kick Ass?" She asked, waiting for an answer.

I looked up at Brad and Marty who were both looking at me waiting as well. "Don't wave a white flag, Dave." Ina told me, letting go of my head.

"I wont. I promise." I told her. I then turned to the computer and opened up my Kick Ass Facebook page.

"What are you doing?" Brad asked me.

"I'm giving the Mother Fucker a return message." I said and started typing.

* * *

"The NYPD is in our house?" I asked Nick breathlessly.

Nick nodded and paused before speaking, "You're Hit Girl, aren't you?" He asked me and I actually felt my knees go weak. "Someone found the purple bike we rode on to the hospital. The police guy said it was Hit Girl's."

I snapped my head up and started walking towards the Travis house. I crossed the front yard, seeing the NYPD cruiser parked in front, and shimmied up the drainpipe, climbing on top of the garage to climb into Nick's room. I was getting my stuff and leaving. The NYPD knew where I was. I was walking down the hall towards my room when I heard the creak of the stairs, meaning someone was coming up.

"Mindy?" I heard, and darted into my room. I locked the door behind me and pushed the mattress off, digging inside the box spring to get all my knives and items I'd hidden in there out and into a duffel bag.

I heard knocking on the door and then I could hear Kim's voice calling from the hallway, "What are you doin' in there? You got a visitor." She said.

"Yeah, a visitor I don't want to see." I said under my breath and then the voice from earlier talking to Kim.

"Why don't you wait downstairs, I'll get her out of there." It was a man's voice. "Mindy? Are you packing your things? Did you just climb up the side of the house?"

I stopped what I was doing and stood up, looking over at the door. I walked over and opened up the door. I looked up and smiled.

"Marcus?" I reached out and wrapped my arms around his torso, pulling him into a hug. "Oh my god, what are you doing here?" I asked him, standing back to look at him.

Marcus smiled and I stepped aside to let him in the room. He looked at the sight of my bed, the mattress flung off and the bag full of weapons. He then closed the door behind him.

"I'm here because Hit Girl's motorcycle was found outside of town, abandoned." Marcus said, giving me that typical Marcus look, that he was disappointed in me. "What is all this stuff you brought with you?" He asked, motioning to the weapons in the duffel bag.

"Just, stuff." I said, cautiously. Marcus sighed.

"Look, as far as the police know I'm interviewing locals to see if they've seen anything. I've been cleared of investigation, but I know Gigante has his eye on me, hoping I'm going to lead them to you. That's why he appointed me a part of the investigation team looking for you." Marcus explained.

"So far the consensus is that Hit Girl left her bike here on her way to Mexico, to leave the country." He added. "Let's keep it that way, why don't we?"

I nodded my head and sighed in relief. Maybe I didn't need to leave town. "Of course, I've heard of a new local superhero named Rough Riley who has been taking down a local problematic biker gang. You know anything about that?" He asked me, looking stern.

"Nope, actually the Travis' don't watch the news anymore, so I don't know anything about what's going on in the world." I told him, smugly.

"You don't watch the news?" Marcus asked me.

"No, actually, I'm grounded. So…" I trailed off.

"You're grounded?" He asked me, raising an eyebrow.

"Um, yeah… I uh, snuck out to see my… Boyfriend… In the car you got me for my birthday, so thanks for that by the way." I offered up, hopefully.

Marcus was taken back. "You have a boyfriend?" He asked me smiling, looking pleased.

I looked down at the floor. "Um, not exactly." I looked up to see Marcus' smile fade. "I did! I just don't anymore. I broke up with today." I said, morosely.

"Today? What happened?" Marcus asked me.

"I found out he's actually been cheating on his girlfriend with me, so I kicked his ass at lunch today." I replied matter-of-factly. Marcus sighed, and shook his head.

"You really don't watch the news?" Marcus asked me.

"No, the Travis' are trying to shelter me from news in New York I think." I replied.

"This explains why you're still here." Marcus said, not really speaking to me, but rather saying his thoughts out loud.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, curious. "What's happened?"

Marcus looked at me as if he were debating to tell me or not. I rolled my eyes and just shot him a look.

He sighed, "Okay, if I don't tell you, you can just turn on any TV at this point or go on any news website and find it. I get it." He started. "He's back."

"Who's back?" I asked, sitting down on the box spring.

"That… Mother Fucker guy. He bombed the city, and the airport. If it weren't for the fact that the chief is dead set on you getting caught, none of us would have come all the way down here." Marcus told me.

I sat there for a minute. Chris D'Amico? Alive? Bombing the fucking city? I snapped up to look at Marcus.

"That fucker is on his payroll." I said. Marcus looked confused. "Chris has paid of the police chief to hunt me down. Take me out." I explained. Marcus stood for a moment and then looked as if it made sense to him.

Dave.

"What about Dave? Where is he? Is he okay? What is he doing?" I spewed out all at once, overwhelmed. I felt my chest get tight, fear climbing in.

"Well as far as I know, he's alive. At least the Mother Fucker didn't kill him. He gave a video message for Kick Ass, so I assume he's alive." Marcus responded.

I practically jumped across the room, snatching my laptop, and opened up Kick Ass' Facebook.

"I'm not standing down. You can threaten me all you want, but I'm not backing down. I will fight to protect this city and its people to my last breath. You've started this war, but I'm going to end it."

I read over his post and smiled. He was okay, he was fighting. I looked up at Marcus and sighed.

"Marcus, I know you don't like me being Hit Girl. But it's who I am, and I told you that before. I have to… I have to go to work." I said, and resumed my packing, snapping the laptop shut and stuffing it in the bag. I crawled up in the attic, throwing the rest of my equipment down.

Marcus was quiet for a while as I went about the room, packing my things. Finally he spoke up. "I'll tell Will and Jennie I'm taking you home. That this attack has made me want to keep you close, or something."

I stopped and turned to look at Marcus. I was shocked. "You're… Helping me?" I asked him.

Marcus looked at me and smiled sadly. "You're right, your father gave you a gift, Mindy. What you and Kick Ass do… You do what I can't do. You're the city's only hope against this crazy… Mother Fucker guy. I get that now." Marcus told me.

I smiled and ran up to him, hugging him. "Thank you." I said, muffled against his shirt.

He pulled away from me and held me out at arm's length. "Just promise me you'll be… Smart." He said. I knew he meant safe, but in my line of work I'm never safe.

"Marcus, I'm always smart when I'm Hit Girl." I told him and finished packing. Marcus went downstairs to speak with Will and Jennie, who would both be home by now.

I had everything packed and walked down the hall to Nick's room. He was inside. I closed the door behind me and knelt in front of him. He was sitting on his bed.

"You've been a good side kick. Can you do one last mission for me?" I asked him, looking up at him. He smiled and nodded yes. "Good."

.

.

.

I had left the house with Marcus, after saying my goodbyes. Thankfully Kaylee had stuck around so I was able to give both her and Kim a good firm hug before leaving my first real girl friends behind.

I had Marcus drop me off a few blocks from the house, as per the plan I'd worked out with Nick. After waiting for an hour or so I ventured back to the house and saw that the blinds in Nick's room were drawn, meaning he'd successfully gotten his family out of the house. I smirked before reaching into my pockets for the keys to my Camero, unlocking it and getting in.

I drove back to where I'd left my bags hidden and stuffed them in the trunk. Starting my journey towards New York City. I couldn't actually go back with Marcus in the cruiser since he'd driven down with a partner and if I went back it would look highly suspicious. So Nick was supposed to tell his family when they got home to find the Camero gone that Marcus had come back to drive it back with me.

I was going to have to do something nice to thank Nick for all his help. I thought to myself as I sped down the highway. I came up on the Welder ranch and slowed down, stopping in front of the turn off. I looked over the distance and stayed for a minute before sighing and pealing out.

* * *

_Alrighty party people! I've been so excited for this chapter, I hope you guys like it :) _

_I should note that Nick has no idea who Marcus is, so he just thought some random NYPD officer was looking for Mindy and went to warn her. I figure Nick was the first one home, and then his mother got home and he bolted to find Mindy before his mother or Marcus could explain their relation (but felt that writing that in was bulky, and since it's in Mindy's POV she wouldn't know all that anyway)._

_And honestly Dave's Kick Ass Facebook post is pretty cheeseball, but oh well. _

_Please leave me your reviews, I love them oh so much and cherish each one lol. Thanks for reading guys!_


	26. Chapter 26

Dave was in the kitchen with Ina, fixing dinner for himself and rest of his houseguests. Ina was standing over a pot of soup, stirring it. Marty was in the next room, on the computer, video chatting with Todd, both of them searching for any information on the Mother Fucker. Brad was sitting the floor trying to figure out how to use the grinder to sharpen the various knives and blades in the safe house.

Dave was buttering bread to make toast out of when a distinct click was heard. None of the others heard it, but Dave's head snapped towards the door. Dave dropped the piece of bread he had been buttering and wielded the butter knife in his hand, ready to strike. Ina noticed Dave's movements out of the corner of her eye and turned to look at him.

Suddenly the door swung open and a petite blonde girl came inside, carrying several bags on her shoulders and in her hands. Ina jumped behind Dave just as the door had swung open. Neither Brad nor Marty had yet to notice the newcomer.

"Who the fuck is that?!" Mindy yelled out, effectively catching the attention of everyone in the safe house. Marty muted the computer, so Todd's question of what was going on couldn't be heard.

Dave's shoulders fell from their tensed up position and he smiled.

Mindy then looked at him and shot him a patronizing look. "Really, Dave. What the fuck are you gonna do with a butter knife?" She asked him.

Dave looked down and the knife in his hands and grinned sheepishly. "I just, it was all I had around. I didn't know who was coming in the door." He replied, defending himself.

She rolled her eyes and advanced toward the boy. Ina backed away, still not sure what was going on. Mindy reached around behind Dave and pushed over the toaster on the counter, revealing a button underneath it.

Dave's eyes went wide, "Um…" He started, not sure if she was going to blow up the whole apartment complex.

Mindy pressed the button and Dave jumped in the air, prepared for an explosion. Instead a small compartment folded out from the cabinet above and a set of butterfly knives were set inside. She pulled out the knives, flipping them open and wielding them.

"Always be prepared, dumb ass. Boy Scout rule number one." Mindy muttered, closing the knives and placing them back in their hiding place, closing the compartment.

Dave smiled and reached out, hugging her. She was taken back at first, not expecting physical contact. Then he let go, and she smirked, chuckling.

"I missed you too… Dumb ass." She told him and he laughed.

"Whoa, is that who I think it is?" Marty called out from the computer. Then Mindy's head snapped over to look at him, and narrowed her eyes.

"Who the fuck are these people, and why are they in my safe house, Dave Lizewski?" Mindy asked, putting her hands on her hips, clearly upset.

"These are my friends, I… They're hiding out here with me, it's too dangerous out there." Dave said.

Mindy looked over at Ina and scrunched her face up. "You're fucking her? She's old enough to be your mother!" She exclaimed, motioning towards Ina.

"What? No! She's just a friend." Dave answered, holding his hands up in defense.

"What's going on?" A red headed girl asked, stepping into the middle of the room where Brad was seated with the grinder.

"He is fucking this one, though." Marty spoke up, jabbing his thumb in Miranda's direction, and Dave shot him a look.

Mindy looked up at Dave, demanding an explanation. "Look, Mindy, Chris is killing people, he already…" Dave trailed off and looked over at Miranda and made an apologetic face before continuing. "Raped Miranda once, so I told her she could come stay here too."

"What the fuck! This isn't god damn Motel 6, Dave." Mindy yelled at him.

"Well I can't leave them at my house either." He told her. Mindy leaned her head back and sighed.

"How many fucking people are living in here?" She asked him.

"It's just us." He replied, motioning to the people assembled.

Mindy walked into the living room that had been transformed into the training area and looked at Marty, Brad, and Miranda.

"Well fuck it. I guess I'm staying in safe house A." She said and went to gather her bags.

"Wait! No! Don't go! Stay for dinner. I want to talk with you." Dave said, calling after her and taking her bags out of her hands. "Where have you been? What have you been doing? Why do you have an accent?" He tumbled out all at once.

Marty snorted and turned back to the computer. Most of the other's pretended to be busy doing something, but were actually paying attention to the conversation.

"I do not have an accent. What are you talking about?" Mindy answered defensively.

"Yeah, you definitely have an accent." Dave replied, smirking.

"Oh, you just wipe that shit eating grin of your face, dick." She retorted, hotly.

"Seriously where have you been? In the south?" Dave asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mindy then unzipped her jeans and took them off. Dave's eyes went wide and looked around, bewildered. Mindy then pounced on Dave, and crawled up him. Dave backed up, with her on top of him, not sure what was going on.

Then Mindy flung her leg around behind his neck and Dave knew what was coming. "Fuck." He was able to get out before Mindy twisted around and brought him down in a swift movement.

Dave's body went down with a loud thud and Mindy got up off him, wiping her hands, pleased. Dave lay there for a few minutes not saying anything. In actuality he'd had the breath knocked out of him and was lying there trying to get it back.

"Holy shit! That was amazing!" Marty cried out from the computer, smiling.

"I'm not going to lie, I thought you were going to rape him for a minute there." Brad told her.

Mindy looked over at Brad and rolled her eyes. "You can't do a flying armbar in skinny jeans, dumb ass."

Ina was crouched beside Dave, looking frantic. Trying to make sure he was okay, since he wasn't moving or saying anything. Finally Dave got up, slowly.

"Okay. Message received, don't make fun of the accent." He croaked out. And Mindy snapped her head around to glare at him. He caught it and cringed. "I mean, what accent?" He added, laughing fearfully.

Marty snickered and Brad was trying to hide his own laughter. Miranda was also smirking from behind her hands. Mindy stepped back into her jeans and pulled them up.

"So, uh, where have you been?" He asked, adding hastily, "If I can ask that safely."

"I've been in Texas." Mindy answered before biting her lip and looking behind Brad. Brad however, thought she was looking at him, and got scared. He looked up at Miranda and over at Marty, hoping for support, thinking she was going to come over and kick his ass next.

"Texas? What's in Texas?" Dave asked her and she held up her hand, motioning for him to hold that thought.

"Just give me a minute." She said and walked over towards Brad. Brad slunk back, fearful, actually crawling into a ball, holding his arms over his head for protection. Mindy looked down at him with confusion as she walked around him to go towards the back wall.

Brad looked up as she passed him by, and Miranda laughed. Brad's face went beet red and he grinned sheepishly. Mindy pulled on a small lever concealed in the wall and a door popped out, Mindy pulled the door out and revealed a mannequin that had the Hit Girl Costume arranged on it, wig and all.

Everyone in the room looked on with interest and awe, except for Dave, who had figured out what Mindy was doing. Dave just sighed and rolled his eyes. Mindy bit her lip with anticipation and smiled with glee. She reached out and took hold of her beloved katanas.

Mindy literally filled up with giddiness at feeling the touch of the handles of her beloved weapon. She turned around and swung them around in her hands, relishing in the feeling, before wielding them crossed in front of her.

Most everyone's staring, watching her wield them so skillfully, Dave just tilted his head to the side. "Feel better now?" He asked her.

"Fuck yeah." Mindy replied, still looking at her swords. "You have no idea how badly I've missed these babies." She said, almost seductively.

"Okay." Dave said, moving the subject onward. "While you have sex with your swords, the rest of us are going to have dinner." Dave said, turning to Ina and popping the bread into the oven.

Mindy rolled her eyes before hesitantly placing her swords back in their resting place.

.

.

.

"Are you sure they aren't going to demolish my safe house?" Mindy asked Dave as they walked towards Mindy's car. Dave had suggested Mindy not stay alone, and since the house was so crowded anyway, he'd offered to stay with her. He'd rationalized that she might feel awkward living with people she didn't know, so Dave was the one to go.

Marty, Brad, and Miranda all knew this was just an excuse for Dave to be alone with Mindy. But they didn't say anything. They were rooting for Dave, in actuality.

"No, they'll be fine." Dave said, praying nothing happened before he and Mindy returned. He hoped there wasn't some other mysterious button that would catch their attention and be so irresistible that they had to press it. Thus enacting the 'don't touch anything' policy.

Mindy unlocked the Camero and slid into the driver's seat. Dave stood there for a moment looking at it. "Are you getting in or not?" Mindy called out to him. And Dave shook his head, before getting in the passenger seat.

"How do you have a Camero?" Dave asked her.

"Sixteenth birthday gift from Marcus." She answered, smirking.

"Wait, when did you turn 16? " Dave asked her, puzzled.

"A few weeks ago." Mindy answered. "I actually had a party… It was kind of weird." She added, thinking back on the experience.

"You know I don't even know when your birthday is." Dave remarked.

Mindy glanced his way while driving. "Well I never told you. It's November 3rd." She told him.

Dave nodded his head in response and they both drove in silence for the rest of the ride. Mindy parked the car and started unloading her bags, trying to pile them all on, to get it in one trip, but them Dave took several off of her, hoisting them on his shoulders. Mindy turned away, but smiled to herself.

They dumped the bags on the floor and Mindy turned on the lights. She looked around before flopping down on the nearby couch. Dave followed suit.

They stayed silent before Dave spoke up, "So… Texas…" He started, looking over at Mindy. He noticed that he felt awkward around her, almost nervous. He wondered if it was because he'd acknowledged having feelings for her, or if it was just that it had been so long since they'd seen each other.

"Yeah, Marcus has family down there I've been hiding out with." She replied off handedly. Dave made a face and Mindy smiled, "Ironic, I know, but they have a different name and I had been living under cover quite flawlessly until someone found my bike abandoned outside of town." She told him, grumbling to herself in irritation.

Dave nodded his head slowly, processing what she had told him. "Texas?" He asked her, still not sure why she'd live in the state.

"Yes, Texas, Dave." She replied, exasperated.

"What have you been doing in… Texas?" He asked her, causing Mindy to smile warmly at her memories.

"I've been, being normal for the past few months… Well until the shit hit the fan at homecoming and my best friend's date had his head blown off." Mindy said, her face falling. She paused and then added, "I could have stopped it from happening if I'd stuck around, but…" She trailed off and looked very focused on the carpet in front of her.

"Mindy?" Dave called out to her, trying to get her attention back.

Suddenly Mindy stood up and paced back and forth. "God Damned Mother Fucker!" She yelled out, and kicked over a practice dummy that was nearby.

Dave came up beside her and lightly touched her arm, barely brushing his fingers against her skin. She shivered, and Dave noticed. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I'm just… Cold." She said, wrapping her arms around her and sitting back down on the couch. Dave came and sat next to her again. Mindy laughed, "It's colder here than I remember. I'm used to Texas weather." She told him, trying to lighten the conversation.

"So what happened after homecoming?" Dave asked her, noticing that she'd avoided truly answering his question.

Mindy stayed quiet for a while, so long that Dave was about to tap her on the shoulder, but before he did she spoke up. "I lost my virginity to a loser in his truck." She said shakily.

Dave stayed silent this time, and then reached out, placing his hand on her hands that had fallen into her lap. "I'm sorry." He said softly.

Mindy turned to look at him and then asked, "Do you… Regret sleeping with Katie?" She asked him, looking as sad as he'd seen her the night her father had died. A sadness he'd never seen on her face since then. She turned away and muttered to herself. "Of course not, you're a boy." She folder her arms across her chest, pushing Dave's hand away.

"Well, sort of." Dave answered, shocking Mindy. She turned to look at him again. "She turned out to be really… I mean because she only wanted to be with be because I'm Kick Ass." He explained.

"What about that red headed bitch?" Mindy asked him, referring to Miranda.

"Night Bitch?" Dave asked and Mindy was taken back. "No… Not really… No." Dave said, awkwardly.

"That's Night Bitch?" Mindy asked Dave, incredulous.

"Yeah. That's her." Dave answered. Mindy hmmffed and turned away.

"That's probably just because it's just sex with her, no relationship." Dave said. "There's nothing to regret."

Mindy was silent for a while, and Dave let her be. They sat there for a few minutes before Mindy spoke up. "I made a new superhero identity." She told him and Dave sat up, eager to hear more.

Mindy smiled, seeing Dave's interest. "She's cowgirl themed." She added.

"No shit?" Dave said, smiling. Bu then his face fell, "Wait, Oh my god I know… You're her?" Dave asked, looking at Mindy as if he wasn't sure.

"Rough Riley? You've heard of her?" Mindy asked him, shocked he'd known anything about a superhero working in Texas.

"Yeah, I saw a thing on the news about how there are superheroes all over the country now. It had a really shitty video of you." Dave said, smirking.

Mindy smiled back at him, before pursing her lips and looking down at her lap.

"What? What's wrong?" Dave asked her, sitting up, trying to see what was the matter.

"I just really missed you." Mindy told him. "I mean, I know I did, but somehow… I don't know… It's nice to be able to talk to somebody about this." Mindy smiled and looked at Dave's face for a few minutes, really looking at him, before adding, "I mean, I had a sort of sidekick, but he didn't understand. I couldn't REALLY talk with him about this."

Dave was taken aback. "You had a sidekick?" Dave asked her, a teasing smile playing on his lips.

Mindy rolled her eyes, "Yeah, he was…" Mindy laughed, "Helpful… He helped me sneak out at night."

Dave's eyebrows shot up. "Sneaking out at night… That is normal teenage behavior."

"Well when you're sneaking out to meet up with friends, yeah. But when you're sneaking out to take on a local biker gang at a bar, not so much." Mindy explained.

Dave yawned noticeably and Mindy perked up. "Look, we should get some sleep. I fully intend on whipping your little team into shape tomorrow." Mindy told him, getting up and walking towards her bags.

"Maybe I should warn them." Dave said, chuckling to himself. He stood up and thought about it for a minute before concluding, "Nah!"

Mindy turned to shoot Dave a smirk, and they went their separate ways. Mindy had changed into her shorts and tank top she usually wore to bed, and was laying down, staring at the ceiling in the dark. She was exhausted. After two days of driving she needed a good nights rest. Especially since the motel she'd stayed in the night before had kept her awake most of the night with the ambient sounds of a call girl hookup on one side and a drug deal on the other.

But despite her exhaustion she couldn't stop staring at the ceiling. Nor could she fall asleep. She didn't want to admit it but her mind was still thinking about Patrick. And the more she thought about it the angrier she got. Eventually she threw back the covers and walking into the area cleared for training and dragged her duffel bag in with her. Sitting down on the floor to clean and maintain her guns, a typical activity of hers when unable to sleep.

.

.

.

Dave awoke with the digital clock next to him flashing 2:13. He didn't really know why he woke up. He couldn't even remember what he was dreaming about, nor did he hear anything that could have roused him from his slumber, but he was wide-awake nonetheless.

He decided to get a drink of water and try to fall back asleep, but when he opened his bedroom door the lights were on and he found Mindy sitting in the middle of the training area, surrounded by giant mounds of guns.

He looked at her for a minute, processing that she was cleaning safe house A's gun arsenal. "Have you been up this whole time?" He asked her.

Mindy's head snapped up and met the sight of a curious Dave. "I can't sleep." She answered, turning back to the task at hand. What had started as cleaning the few guns she'd taken with her to Texas had turned into cleaning and maintaining the entire gun collection in the safe house.

Dave softly padded his way over to Mindy and stood there looking at the guns surrounding her. Mindy stalled in her actions and looked up at him. "Yes?" She asked him.

"Do you want help?" Dave offered, and plopped down across from her. Mindy handed him an assault rifle, which Dave took gingerly.

They both worked in silence before Dave piped up. "Trouble sleeping?"

Mindy bit her lip, debating whether or not to divulge her thoughts. Finally she sighed after coming to the realization that she'd held secrets in long enough. Dave was a person she could share secrets with.

"I had a boyfriend in Texas." She said softly, a blush creeping up her cheeks. She wasn't nervous about telling Dave about her love life, but rather embarrassed to admit how stupid she'd been.

Dave's head shot up, partly due to shock and partly due to jealousy. "A… B-boyfriend?" Dave garbled out.

"Yeah. The one I had sex with after homecoming." She said, looking up to take in Dave's reaction. It wasn't one she expected.

"Did you… Like him?" Dave asked her. "Or still like him… Are you still dating?" He added, unsure.

Mindy snapped her head down and stared at the gun in her hand. She wasn't sure. She knew they weren't dating, but a part of her was still upset. _Did that mean she still liked him?_ She wondered.

Dave was still waiting for a response, anxiously. Finally Mindy looked up at him and her face looked like it had earlier, reminiscent of the night her father had died, but also confused.

"I don't know." Mindy croaked out. Dave's jealousy subsided and instead he felt sympathetic towards Mindy.

"Well, how did you feel when you were together?" Dave asked her.

Mindy paused, mulling over her answer. "Special, I guess… Like… I felt valued." Mindy answered, meekly.

"How do you feel now?" Dave prodded.

Mindy furrowed her brows, she didn't want this to be some feelings fest. Dave noticed her pulling back and reached out to her. "I know it's not easy to talk about these things, Mindy. But it's healthy… Take it from the guy that had to take therapy." Dave told her.

Mindy looked up at Dave then. "You had to take therapy?" She asked, incredulous, yet curious.

Dave grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, the woman you accusing me of sleeping with earlier is actually my therapist." He explained.

"Is it normal to live with your therapist?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Probably not." He answered frankly. "But not much about me is normal anymore."

They stayed quiet for a while, still working on the guns. Finally Dave spoke up again out of curiosity. "So are you still dating this guy or not?" He asked her.

Mindy snorted, "Hell no. I found out he was… Cheating on his girlfriend with me." She answered.

Dave paused, "And why are you confused about liking this douche bag?" Dave asked, teasing her playfully.

"Well that's the problem isn't it?" Mindy replied, smartly. "I did hit him over the head with a lunch tray though… And then threw it at his throat." She added.

Dave smiled and laughed. "Wish I could have been there for that."

Mindy smiled as well, "I think I freaked out my friends. They didn't know I was capable of that." She told him.

"I'm sure they have no clue what you're capable of." Dave retorted.

Mindy smirked in return. "Still…" She trailed off and sighed.

"You know, Mindy, it's kind of good you had this happen." Dave said. Mindy shot Dave a incredulous look. "I mean, now you have something to avoid. Someone to compare other guys to. Make sure you appreciate when you… Find a good one." Dave explained, adding the last part shyly.

Mindy sat, trying to understand what Dave was telling her. "I've got that, with Katie. I know to steer clear of girls that are only in it because I'm Kick Ass." Dave told her. "Not that I'm going to get with any girl otherwise… It's pretty much the only redeeming quality about me." He added morosely.

Mindy shook her head. "No, Dave. You're a… You're…" Mindy trailed off, feeling a familiar heat rise to her cheeks. Much like the heat she'd felt when first interacting with Patrick. "You're a great guy. You're funny, and you're into comics, and…" Mindy trailed off again, embarrassed, realizing she was starting to list the reasons she liked him.

Dave chuckled. "Liking comics isn't really a redeeming feature, Mindy."

Mindy looked up at Dave defiantly. "It is for the right girl." She defended.

Dave looked at Mindy, feeling his heartbeat quicken. _She couldn't mean her, could she?_ He thought to himself. Finally Dave looked away, feeling foolish for entertaining such notions.

He scratched at the back of his head, and stretched out. "We should probably get some sleep if you're still hell bent on making Marty suffer tomorrow." Dave said, smirking.

Mindy sighed and looked at the guns they'd gotten through. "Yeah, you're right." She replied nodding.

Dave got up and started walking back towards his room before turning around to address her, "Good night, Mindy."

Mindy felt hot again and feelings of giddiness take over her. She swallowed it down and replied nonchalantly. "Yeah, you too, dorkface."

* * *

_Yes I've switched to 3rd person! I had always intended this change once Dave and Mindy reunited. I felt like it gave the story some sort of symbolic change. I did struggle with actually writing it in a way that still felt genuine and interesting though, so let me know what you think about it._

_Also this chapter turned out way way longer than I expected lol. And the end part is more serious than I originally intended, but I kind of like it. I promise the next chapter will be more light hearted ;)_

_Anyway, leave me some reviews! I've hit 100 now, the most I've ever gotten for a story and I'm SO thankful guys! I'm so pleased you guys like the story :D_


	27. Chapter 27

Dave woke up the next morning to the buzzing of his cell phone on the nightstand. He grabbed aimlessly at it without bothering to look or even lift his head before pressing it to his ear.

"Hello?" He croaked out groggily.

"Are you just now waking up? It's eleven o'clock man!" Marty's voice exclaimed through the phone.

Dave sat up in bed and looked at his clock, which confirmed Marty's exclamations. "Shit," Dave replied, rubbing his face to wake up.

"Oh, I know… You got into Hit Girl's panties last night," Marty insinuated, and Dave could picture the wiggling eyebrows that went with his words.

"What?! No! Marty!" Dave responded.

"Fuck I bet she's amazing in bed, all acrobatic and shit," Marty went on, sounding wistful.

"No Marty. Mindy and I did not have sex," Dave explained. "Seriously. Look we'll be over in a few minutes. I'll talk to you later," He added before ending the call and dragging himself out of bed.

He trudged into the main room and started making coffee, thankful that there were some coffee supplies still in the apartment. Safe house A was only ever used by Mindy and her Father. Dave had never actually been in it, and until now he'd never even known where it was. He didn't know how long it had been since Mindy had been in it. For all he knew the last time she'd spent there had been with her father.

Dave heard a groan from behind him and turned around to see Mindy with bed head and circles under her eyes. Dave smiled, "I always figured you for an early riser," He teased.

Mindy shot Dave a look of contempt, "Well, I've had a total of eight hours of sleep over the past two days. Normally I'm a lot more perky," Mindy explained, faking a beauty queen smile and raising her voice a couple octaves with sarcasm.

"Well this should help." Dave handed her a mug of coffee and she quickly took a gulp before choking, her face twisting up.

She barely swallowed what was in her mouth before speaking. "This tastes like shit."

"Really?" Dave asked her peering down into his own cup. "I haven't had any yet. I didn't put cream or sugar in it," He went on, turning to look around the small kitchenette area. "I didn't know how you like it, plus I don't think there is any cream here anyway," He added, shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh my god, are you trying to kill me?" Mindy muttered before duping her cup in the sink. "Fuck it. We're going out for breakfast."

.

.

.

Mindy was tearing into a hefty stack of syrup-laden pancakes and Dave had a plate of eggs, bacon, and hash browns he was working on.

"More coffee, hon?" The plump waitress asked, carafe in hand.

Both Mindy and Dave nodded. Mindy put in three sugar packets and a long pour of cream into hers. "For future reference, this is how I like my coffee, just so you don't try to kill me again," She instructed.

The diner they had found on the way to safe house C was pretty empty. In fact there was only one other customer at the counter. But this suited Mindy just fine, she liked the quiet.

"You know I haven't even asked you what you've been up to in my absence," Mindy said.

Dave scoffed, "Nothing. I had a job working as a pizza delivery guy. But after the attacks I sort of quit," He replied, pushing his eggs around on his plate.

"What about… Your dad? I mean how are you doing with that? Is that why you have a therapist?" Mindy asked him.

Dave laughed before answering. "That's kind of a funny story actually," Dave responded, leaning back in his seat. "I sort of beat the shit out of my friend Todd at work, so I had to take therapy or lose my job."

Mindy raised her eyebrows, "You beat the shit out of your friend?" She paused, "Was there any specific reason? Or…"

"Well I found out that he's the one that told Chris about my secret identity. And… Who my dad was," Dave explained, sighing at the end.

Mindy narrowed her eyes and sat in her seat for a moment. Finally she spoke up, "Is this guy in my safe house right now?" She asked him, tentatively.

"No, he's away at college in Michigan," Dave told her.

"Good. He's never allowed in my safe house," Mindy replied. "Also, let's agree to never tell him my secret identity."

Dave stared down at his plate. "Actually he kind of already knows it." He admitted softly.

"What?!" Mindy snapped.

"I didn't mean to tell him…"

"You fucking told the guy that sold you out to the Mother Fucker, who I am?!" She responded, livid.

"It just slipped out," Dave defended himself meekly.

"Oh my god." Mindy tilted her head back and looked at the stained ceiling tiles, sighing.

"I'm sorry," Dave said.

Mindy snapped back and glared at Dave. But she saw his innocent, apologetic face and softened. "Fuck it. Let's get going."

.

.

.

"What the fuck is taking them so long to get here?" Marty whined to Brad, referring to Dave and Mindy who were supposed to be over in a few minutes according to the telephone call he'd shared with Dave, over an hour ago.

"What if something happened to them on the way over here?" Brad asked, worried.

"Don't say that!" Miranda snapped, diverting her attention from the conversation that had lulled between her and Ina.

"Do you think I'll be able to chat with her over Skype?" Todd's voice sounded out from the computer.

"God, Todd, I can't wait till you meet her, it's going to be unforgettable when you embarrass yourself start fan-girling over her." Marty responded, chuckling to himself.

"Get your asses in gear. We're going on a field trip." The group turned to the doorway to see Mindy walking in with Dave trailing her. She had a large duffel bag over her shoulder and had quickly stepped inside, hurriedly stuffing the bag full of supplies.

"Wha… Where are we going?" Brad asked tentatively.

"Do we need to change?" Miranda added, watching Mindy flit around the apartment, packing her bag.

"Is something wrong?" Ina called out to Dave, looking worried.

"No. You can stay," Mindy told her, zipping up the bag and hoisting it up on her shoulder.

"What took you so long? You said you were going to be here in a few minutes over an hour ago." Marty whispered to Dave, signing off of Skype with Todd. "Did you get in another _romantic_ rendezvous?" Marty asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Dave shot Marty a look before whispering back, "No. Nothing happened."

"Sure it didn't," Marty replied, grinning smugly.

"Come on, daylights burning," Mindy said, walking out the door.

Marty turned to look at Miranda and Brad. "Well that's not our fault," He muttered, following her out the door.

Mindy's head snapped around and turned on Marty, causing him to run into her, since he wasn't watching where he was going. He backed up, and hunkered down, after seeing her eyes bore into him.

"I'm sorry I haven't been able to get a lot of sleep in the past few days like the rest of you babies. I've had a lot of things on my mind lately. I've been trying to come up with some interesting ways of dismembering Chris Fucking D'Amico. Does anybody object to that?" Mindy asked, looking at the group.

Brad's eyes were wide and he fervently shook his head no, Miranda shrugged her shoulders, and Dave just smirked. Mindy turned back on Marty and tilted her head to the side, asking for his answer.

"N-no. Definitely not. That is good, I like it. Dedication. It's good," Marty stammered, fearing her repercussions. This was after all, the same girl who at twelve years old had killed a whole group of mafia thugs live on the internet.

"Good," Mindy replied, turning around swiftly. "Then we're leaving."

No one said anything for a while as the group walked across town. They all just followed her like little ducklings. Finally they arrived at what appeared to be a decaying, abandoned warehouse.

"I figured we could use a little bit of fun, and I could stand to get some frustrations out. So, today we're going to do a little target practice," Mindy said, smirking as she pulled out one of her purple gripped .38's.

"Oh no. No, no no. I am not letting you shoot at me again," Dave spoke up.

"What?! She's going to shoot us?" Brad yelped, both bewildered and afraid.

Mindy rolled her eyes and sighed. "Oh dig your diaper out of your ass. I brought you vests."

"But you are going to shoot at us?" Marty asked, timidly.

Mindy shrugged her shoulders. "That way you know what it's like to get shot at." She pulled back on the gun, chambering a bullet. "My daddy did it for me, and I did it for Dave. So now it's your turn." She motioned with the gun towards the bag. "Put those on."

Marty, Brad, and Miranda all took a vest and strapped it on without protest, mostly out of fear that she'd shoot them whether they were wearing one or not. Dave however walked over to Mindy.

"Well I already know what it's like. So do I have to do it again?" Dave asked her, more defiant against doing it rather than fearfully requesting as the others would have done.

Mindy turned to Dave and looked him up and down. "Fine. But if you're not going to get shot, you can work on shooting," She said and fired a round, hitting Marty square in the chest and knocking him down.

"What the fuck! Oh my god. I'm dead. I'm dead, oh my god I'm dead," Marty said, flipping out and rolling around on his back in shock. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were wide with fear. Brad and Miranda came to his side to make sure he was okay.

"Dude, you're not dead. You're talking to us right now," Brad told him trying to calm him down after he was sure Marty hadn't been injured. Miranda reached down and pulled the bullet out of the vest and looked at it, holding it between her thumb and forefinger.

Dave turned back to Mindy after watching the small spectacle Marty had made of himself. "I'm not going to be shooting people, Mindy. I don't want to kill people," He explained before muttering, "You shouldn't either."

Mindy rolled her eyes. "Dave, you can shoot a person and not kill 'em. I've done it plenty of times. You just have to shoot 'em in the leg or the foot or something. Trust me, if you shoot a guy in the foot, he's going to stop chasing you."

Dave sighed in contempt and scowled. Mindy rolled her eyes again. "Look if you're gonna be such a pussy about it, just do target practice on some cans or something," She told him, waving him off, gun still in hand.

Dave grumbled to himself and reached into the bag to find the matching .38. He heard another gun shot from Mindy and turned around to see Brad was on the ground, grunting.

Dave sighed, "Just please don't kill my friends, okay?" He asked her, looking at the pleased smile on her face.

She nodded slightly in his direction, but the smile didn't waver. "Yeah, sure."

.

.

.

"I think… she is… trying… to kill us," Marty wheezed out between breaths.

"Come on, you bunch of babies! I want to see you putting forth an effort here!" Mindy barked out as she lapped the group yet again, Dave following behind her, giving the huffing and puffing Marty, Brad, and Miranda sympathetic grimaces.

After the shooting practice Mindy brought the group to the park to do some physical conditioning. She'd found that other than Dave, the group was sorely lacking in the cardio department, and Marty had bitched and moaned throughout the entire workout.

Finally Marty couldn't physically run anymore and stopped, bending over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Miranda noticed and called out to the others, "Guys, I think Marty's done."

Mindy did a 180 and jogged up to where Miranda and Brad had circled around Marty. He started swaying a bit and Miranda held out her hands, trying to steady him. But then He stumbled over to the edge of the park's path and threw up.

Mindy sighed, "Well today was successful. Let's go ahead and stretch out."

"So, was your whole plan to make someone throw up?" Dave asked her, sitting down in the grass beside her, the others following, Marty excluded since he was still hunched over his pile of vomit.

"No. That just means that he pushed himself to the limit. He should feel proud of himself. Most people quit before that happens," Mindy said, smiling.

"You hear that, Marty? Be proud of that vomit!" Brad called over to him, lifting his fist in the air and pumping it in solidarity. The rest of the group laughed.

"So, Mindy. Dave said you're fifteen. You have any boyfriends?" Miranda asked Mindy, stretching almost completely in half, mystifying Brad as to how she could move her body that way.

"Sixteen actually. I had my birthday a couple of weeks ago," Mindy replied off-handedly.

"Oh, well happy belated sweet sixteen! That's always a fun age, you get to drive and date, go to parties…" Miranda trailed off reminiscing about her high school years. Finally she came back and continued, "So, are you dating yet?"

"Uh, well, yes. It didn't end well," Mindy replied, also stretching in ways that made Brad wonder if females had as many bones as men did. Marty had now stumbled over to the group and plopped down between Dave and Brad, looking tired, but no longer nauseous. "You're going to want to stretch out by the way. Trust me," Mindy told him smiling sarcastically.

"Oh? I'm sorry to hear that," Miranda responded solemnly, before perking up, "I hope you made him pay for it," She added, giggling.

Mindy smirked, "Yeah, not as much as I could have, but I did hand him his ass." Mindy paused and furrowed her brows, "Damn!" She blurted out loudly.

"What?" Dave asked her, worried. He was afraid that Miranda bring up this sort of conversation wouldn't end well. He'd noticed the night before that despite Mindy's tough outer exterior; she was genuinely upset about this guy.

"I'm gonna miss the big rodeo match where I could totally emasculate him." Mindy said, mostly to herself rather than answering Dave's question. She slammed her fist into the ground beside her and sighed in malcontent, a scowl taking over her face.

Every one was quiet, letting her stew over her emotions. Then curiosity got the better of Dave and he had to ask, "Rodeo? You did rodeo? Really?"

Mindy slowly turned her head to Dave and glared at him. Dave didn't falter, he just kept smiling. Finally Mindy's icy resolve broke and she snapped at him, "It was Texas, Dave. It's what you do."

Miranda cleared her throat, trying to bring the conversation back where it had been. "So, did you… get lucky with the guy?" She asked, looking curiously hopeful.

Mindy looked at her strangely before glancing at Marty and Brad who were looking at her expectantly. She was sort of creeped out that these complete strangers were so invested in her personal life. She didn't mind talking about it with Dave so much, but she hardly knew these people.

"Um, I don't know if I'd call it getting _lucky_, but… we… knocked boots, per se." Mindy answered tentatively.

Miranda groaned knowingly. "Oh no. That bad huh?" Miranda leaned in towards Mindy and dropped her voice, "Did you get… anything out of it, or…"

Mindy leaned away from her, disturbed at Miranda's personal questions of a stranger, and didn't answer. Yet before she had the chance to not do so, Marty piped up, clearly feeling much better.

"You know who's good at giving female orgasms?" He asked Mindy, pausing for effect rather than waiting for an answer. Yet the pause was longer than necessary, making Mindy feel even more uncomfortable. "Dave. Dave is awesome at it. Erika was always telling me how much Katie went on and on about the orgasms Dave gave her."

"Um…" Mindy responded, not sure what was wrong with these people.

"Just ask Miranda!" Brad added, motioning towards the redhead, who turned to Mindy and nodded her head yes. "Dave has sex with her. She knows, he's… Uh, got it goin' on," He said, enthusiastically.

Mindy jumped up and gave all of them a bewildered look. "Okay, I'm… gonna get a drink of water," She said, pointing behind her and quickly walking off towards a drinking fountain, glad to be away from the weirdos.

Dave watched Mindy walk away before turning on his friends. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! What was that?!" He whispered loudly.

"We're just trying to help you out, dude. Point her in the right direction. The direction to your erection." Marty replied, grinning widely at his own pun.

Dave stared at Marty for a moment, wondering if he'd been dropped on his head as a baby. "Just stop. Okay? This is not okay. You're freaking her out, and quite frankly, you're all freaking me out too," He finally responded, looking the group over. "Just… Stop. Okay? Just stop."

"Was it too much?" Miranda whispered.

"Yes. I think it might have been too much. But thank you for the enthusiasm." Dave quipped sarcastically. Then he noticed Mindy returning out of the corner of his eye and cleared his throat loudly, while popping up off the ground.

"I think we're ready to head back now," Dave said, a bit too cheerfully and loudly, making Mindy raise an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, let's head out." She answered and the group headed back to safe house C. She led the group and the others followed along behind her whispering to each other.

"I think maybe we should soften our approach. Dave was right we came on too strong. Maybe talk about his other redeeming qualities." Miranda whispered, speaking to Marty and Brad. Dave turned around slowly to give his friends the death glare.

"Yeah, maybe bringing up orgasms was too far. Maybe we could… Talk about how fit he is? I mean, he kept up with her today during the workout," Brad offered.

"Yeah. Dave's actually pretty hot now, I mean, just look at his arms." Miranda responded, still whispering.

"Seriously, if you guys don't shut the fuck up, I'm kicking you out of the safe house." Dave whispered severely at his friends, hoping and praying Mindy couldn't hear them.

"Okay, okay. Geez, just trying to help a brother out." Marty responded, trying to satiate his friend, who now had a vein throbbing on his forehead.

Mindy was walking ahead, smiling to herself, listening to every word that had been exchanged. Finally she spoke up, "Dave, I have some bad news for you."

"What? What's that?" Dave asked her, jogging up to her side, trying to separate himself from the conversation behind him.

"Your friends are freaks." She replied matter-of-factly. Dave just looked away and envisioned beating the shit out of Marty.

* * *

_Sorry for the longer than usual wait guys. But I just had a hard time concentrating on getting this chapter done lol. Anyway, this is more humorous that most other chapters, but I kind of wanted some lighter material rather than having Mindy just moping about missing Patrick._

_Anyway, please let me know what you think. Leave me reviews please! ;)_


	28. Chapter 28

Mindy was pouting for two reasons: One, that she was being forced to participate in Thanksgiving at Marty's, and two, that she was stuck taking the subway to get there. As she glanced to the person standing a few feet from her, she saw a grown man with a mustache, wearing denim hot pants and an extended stomach-baring cutoff shirt. She sighed and shot Marty and Dave a glare.

"I still think we could have taken the car," She muttered.

"And how would we explain why we're driving a brand new Camero? My dad's a car freak, he'd probably spend hours looking at it and asking you to pop the hood," Marty reasoned. "Which while we're on the subject, how are we going to explain you to my parents? I already told them I was bringing an extra friend other than Dave, but my mom's going to ask a shit storm of questions about your life history."

"She's a friend. Simple as that," Dave replied casually, giving the hot pants man a questionable glance as the subway car made a sharp turn and the man swayed forward, exposing more of his rounded stomach and his shorts bunched up impossibly higher.

"No, I've got it! She's your new girlfriend!" Marty suggested excitedly. Dave shot him a look but Mindy responded positively.

"Sure, sounds fine. Whatever." She replied as they pulled into a station. The group still had a few more stops before their destination so they stayed put, but so did hot pants man, much to Mindy's dismay.

"Great! It's settled then. We'll say you met at Atomic Comics," Marty said cheerfully, thinking about how wonderful this day would turn out considering he'd just successfully persuaded the girl his best friend was in love with to pretend to be his girlfriend for the day, and that in a matter of hours he was going to be chowing down on a buffet of turkey and stuffing.

Dave was just thankful that Marty and the others had stopped insinuating his sexual prowess to Mindy in graphic and embarrassing ways. He made a mental note to add that to his thankful list for the day.

"I just don't see why I have to come at all. Your mother doesn't know me so she wouldn't miss me. I could be doing invaluable recon on Chris and his whereabouts," Mindy whined bitingly.

Dave shot her a patronizing look. "Because it's Thanksgiving. It's a holiday, I bet you anything Chris D'Amico is taking the day off. You should be celebrating with someone, not stuck in the safe house all day by yourself. All the others have gone to celebrate with their families," He retorted.

Mindy just rolled her eyes and inadvertently caught a glance of hot pants man readjusting his junk. Mindy grimaced and snapped her head straight ahead, hoping to burn the image from her mind.

"Just promise me we can take a cab back home," She pleaded and Dave and Marty both stole disgusted looks at hot pants man before looking back at Mindy.

"Agreed," they both said in unison.

.

.

.

The front door to Marty's parent's house swung open and a plump middle-aged woman came out, wrapping her arms around Marty and kissing his cheeks. Mindy stepped back, to give the woman space, and Dave just watched on.

The woman pulled back from her son and then did the same routine with Dave, cooing over him before finally pulling back and looking at the two boys, smiling. She then ushered everyone inside.

"And who is this charming young lady?" Mrs. Eisenberg asked, referring to Mindy who was standing awkwardly behind Marty and Dave.

"This is Mindy, Dave's new girlfriend," Marty answered, looking proud.

"Girlfriend? Oh, David, that is just wonderful." Mrs. Eisenberg said, practically bursting with joy.

As the trio stepped into the home the savory smell of cooking food filled the air and Mindy's mouth began to water. She had never had a large Thanksgiving feast before. Her father had never made any holiday a big deal. The most they had ever done was actually make a simple dinner together since they usually ate out or ordered in. And the few years she lived with Marcus afterward he had been working during Thanksgiving so she hadn't eaten a large dinner then either.

So Mindy was rather excited to experience her first real Thanksgiving. But she wasn't going to let that show, she did have a tough reputation to uphold after all. There were only a handful of people that she had ever shown her vulnerable side to, and the only one that wasn't in Cooper was here with her.

But Dave wasn't as excited as Mindy. In fact, the real reason he had insisted that Mindy go with them was that he didn't want to be the only non-family member in attendance. This was going to be the first of many future holiday events that he would have to go through without his father, and he was anxious. He hoped that having Mindy around would ease his troubled mind and be someone that could understand.

But Marty, his mother, his father who was still sitting in the living room watching the parade, and his little brother who was holed up in his room sleeping realized neither Dave nor Mindy's feelings. They just went about the holiday as if everything were normal, because to them it was.

Well other than Mindy's presence, who was someone none of them, sans Marty had ever met. But Mrs. Eisenburg tried her best to make her feel at home.

"Well welcome, Mindy! How long have you and David been together? Obviously long enough to bring her over for Thanksgiving," She paused to laugh nervously and shot her son a look. "I'm surprised I haven't heard of you before now, dear."

"Well actually Dave dragged me here, said he didn't want me alone on the holidays," Mindy replied, smirking at Marty, who had gotten in trouble with his mother not even five minutes after stepping through the door.

"Alone? Don't you have any family in town, dear?" Mrs. Eisenburg asked, her eyebrows knit in confusion.

"No, I'm an orphan." Mindy told her smiling, waiting for the reaction.

"Oh! Well… We're glad to have you dear. Any girlfriend of Davids is family to us!" Mrs. Eisenburg replied awkwardly before bustling back into the kitchen to finish cooking.

"Um, I brought something for dinner, I didn't feel right just showing up without anything, so…" Dave called after her, following her into the kitchen, the small casserole dish in hand.

"Oh, what a dear you are! You didn't have to bring anything sweetheart!" Mrs. Eisenberg said, taking the dish and peering inside.

"It's just a family beans recipe. Nothing special." He murmured, feeling unsure of himself and also thinking back to his memory of his mother teaching him how to make them when he was a child.

.

He pictured his mother's kind and smiling face, holding his hand as she helped him stir the large pot on the stove, him having to stand on a chair just to reach it. She bent down, to be on level with him and softly spoke to him.

"This is our family's secret, the Worcestershire sauce." She said as she poured the dark fragrant sauce into the pot.

"Worsh… Warshetire… Wurshtire…" Dave struggled to pronounce the name of the secret ingredient. His mother laughed and smiled at her son, before ruffling up his curly hair and kissing him on the cheek.

.

"Oh, David," Mrs. Eisenberg said, bringing Dave back to the present. "They're perfect. We can't have Thanksgiving without them!" She said taking the dish and walking over towards the microwave. "Shall I keep them in the microwave to stay warm?" She asked him, as she started putting them in there.

"Um, yeah, sure," Dave replied and fully took in the sight of the kitchen. There were dirty dishes strewn across every spot on the counter, boxes and bags of groceries laying out, half opened, and several cookbooks opened up and stacked on top of one another.

"Do you want me to help you with anything, Mrs. Eisenberg?" Dave offered, stepping over to the overflowing sink and moving things around. "I could start cleaning dishes, if you want."

Mrs. Eisenberg snapped back to look at Dave and had a frazzled look about her, but smiled warmly when she saw Dave trying to help her. "That would be heavenly, dear," She replied and Dave smiled, regrouping the dishes so he could fill the sink with dishwater. By the time he'd filled the sink and was starting to wash the first dirty pan Mindy had entered the kitchen.

She'd poked her head in, trying to find an escape from Marty's father and brother (who had now awoken and clambered down the stairs in his underwear) who were commenting on the parade and making Mindy feel very uncomfortable, mostly because Bobby, Marty's younger brother, had sat down on the couch beside Mindy, still in only his underwear.

"When she saw Dave starting to wash dishes she was relieved, because it gave her something to do in the kitchen which didn't involve cooking, which was not her strong suit (she was never cooking spaghetti and meatballs again after what happened on Marcus' birthday).

"Here, you wash, I'll dry," Mindy offered, picking up a nearby towel and standing beside Dave at the sink.

This caused Mrs. Eisenberg to turn and take notice of the young 'couple' and smile to herself. To her, Mindy was already immensely better than the other girl Dave had dated, Katie, who when she had met over dinner at Dave and Casimir's years earlier, had sat at the table like the queen of Sheba as she was served and didn't even bother to help clean up afterwards. Mindy had offered to help clean before dinner even started. Mrs. Eisenberg decided she liked this girl.

.

.

.

Mr. Eisenberg had risen from his recliner to do the ceremonial carving of the turkey, power blades in hand, and Dave and Mindy were helping arrange hot dishes of food on the dining table. Marty was already seated, and his brother, Bobby, was just coming down the stairs fully clothed, after his mother had seen him sitting on the couch in his underwear.

"What on earth is wrong with you?! We have a lady in the house! Put some clothes on for god's sake!" She fussed at him, chasing him up the stairs, flailing after him.

After everyone was seated, the table joined hands. Dave reached out to Mindy beside him and smiled. Mindy blushed and took his hand in her left before feeling her right hand be grabbed by Bobby, whose hand was warm and sweaty.

"We like to thank God for our blessings before saying grace," Mr. Eisenberg said, looking at Mindy, who quickly smiled in response. "I'll start. I'm thankful to have a nice home and family, two smart sons, and a lucrative career," He said before looking over at his wife beside him who smiled.

"I'm thankful for our home and sons, and for David too," She said, nodding towards Dave, who smiled back awkwardly. He was trying to think of what on earth he could be thankful for.

His father was dead, his mother was dead, Chris Mother Fucking D'Amico was bombing the city, and he was having no luck on dredging up any information on the Mother Fucker or the Toxic Mega Cunts. What on earth did he have to be thankful for? But then, he felt Mindy's hand twitch slightly in his hand from her arm swaying slightly and he turned to look at her.

He realized exactly what he was thankful for. Mindy was back. His teammate, and his friend, not to mention the girl he was harboring romantic feelings for. He bit his lip and sighed lightly, out of contentment.

By the time he was brought out of his thoughts and back into the conversation it was Mindy's turn to say what she was thankful for. She paused, not sure what to say, partly because she was just unsure what she was thankful for, but also because most of the things coming to mind were related to her secret alter ego.

_I'm thankful that I'm reunited with my katanas, I'm thankful I'm staying in a place I can practice knife throwing without people thinking I'm a psychopath, I'm thankful I was able to practice shooting people the other day, I'm thankful for having my entire arsenal back at my disposal…_

Her list could go on and on. But none of these things could be brought up at Thanksgiving dinner at the Eisenberg home. She looked to Dave for help, not sure what to say since the things that the others had mentioned before her all had to do with family and jobs, neither of which Mindy had. Then id donned on her: Dave.

"I'm thankful to have Dave in my life," She said simply and softy added "Again." So only Dave could hear her. She felt her face go hot and knew she was blushing again.

Dave smiled wide, "I'm thankful to have Mindy in my life. I don't know where I'd be without her," He said, looking at her, watching a slight pink hue rise to her cheeks. At the realization that she was in fact flushed, it suddenly became harder to breathe.

"Aw. How cute," Marty said, sarcastically on Dave's other side. Snapping Dave back into the moment.

.

.

.

Dave and Mindy were sitting on the couch in the Eisenberg's den, idly watching the football game when Marty came back into the room, balancing a plate of leftovers. Mindy watched him critically as he gingerly sat down and started shoveling food in his mouth.

"How much are you planning on eating today?" She asked him, noting this was his fourth helping. "Cause you know it's not going to be pretty coming back up tomorrow when I kick your ass into shape."

Marty paused mid bite, fork hovering in the air. He turned to look at Mindy who was sitting on the couch, arms folded, looking smug. "You're really going to make us train the day after Thanksgiving?" He asked her timidly.

"Of course I am, you got today off, no need prolonging the inevitable," She quipped back.

Marty set his fork back down on the plate and set it on the table beside him, his appetite lost. However he wasn't paying attention and cranberry sauce flung off the plate when his fork flipped over, landing right on Mindy's lap.

Mindy sprang up from the couch, "Agh!" She exclaimed involuntarily and started trying to wipe it off of her.

"Stop, you're just smearing it around," Dave commanded, picking up a napkin nearby and trying to blot the stain away. He did decide to stay on her sweater though, and didn't dare blotting near her inner thighs, where most of the sauce was.

Mindy sighed, letting her shoulders fall. "Now I feel like a five year old, thanks." Causing Dave to look up and stopped blotting.

"What's going on down here?" Mrs. Eisenberg asked, coming down the stairs into the den after hearing Mindy's scream. Mindy turned to look at her, and Mrs. Eisenberg saw a bright pink stain formed on Mindy's crotch area. She was taken back at first, not sure what was going on, but fearing the worst, knowing her son had to be involved somehow.

"I accidentally flung cranberry sauce on Mindy," Marty answered sheepishly.

Mrs. Eisenberg sighed and rolled her eyes. "Figures. Alright dear, why don't you come with me, we will get that stain right out, and I think I've got some of Marta's clothes she dropped off to donate that you can wear until then," she instructed, leading Mindy upstairs.

"Marta?" Dave asked Marty, after Mindy and Mrs. Eisenberg were gone.

"My cousin. She's the same age as Mindy I think, although I doubt Mindy's going to want to wear anything of hers she doesn't seem the type to wear a skank's clothes," Marty responded, settling back down in his seat.

"Marty!" Dave reprimanded him, shocked he'd call his own family member a skank.

"What? It's true. The reason she's donating it is cause she got knocked up. Trust me, if Mindy does come back down here in her clothes you'll understand what I mean," Marty replied. "But then again, you'd probably like that," He added, smiling and wiggling his eyebrows. "Mindy in skin tight clothes, barely covered…"

"Marty, please," Dave said, glaring at his long time friend. "I swear if you start going on again like you guys did the other day during training, I will shoot you when you're not wearing a vest," He warned.

"Okay, okay. I won't!" Marty replied, holding his hands up in defeat.

.

.

.

"Here it is, dear. Just pick out whatever you want." Mrs. Eisenberg said, pointing to the box on the bed and closed the bedroom door behind her as she walked down the hall, leaving Mindy in the spare bedroom alone to change.

Mindy peered in the box, and looked cautiously at the bright colors. She picked out a few things, gave them questioning looks and set them aside, going in further hoping to find something. But when she picked up the last piece she knew it was hopeless. She was either going to have to wear a spandex mini dress in pink or yellow, or wind up wearing something similar to the hot pants guy on the subway earlier.

"Fuck me," She moaned to herself and sighed.

.

.

.

"Don't. Say. Anything," Mindy warned Marty and Dave, who were both aimlessly watching the final quarter of the football game. Her voice prompted the both of them to turn around and look at her.

Marty grinned slyly and turned to see Dave's reaction. Dave was looking at Mindy in shiny black leggings and a shirt that was way too short, exposing her stomach. Mindy stomped over to the couch and plopped down next to Dave, crossing her arms in a huff.

Dave's eyes were watching her every move, transfixed by the small amount of skin he was now privy to seeing as well as noting how glad he was that leggings were now socially acceptable as pants.

"I told you. Leggings as pants are only worn by skanks," Marty said, nudging Dave with his elbow. Mindy snapped to glare at Marty and he held up his hands in defense. "Not you, I was just talking about my cousin. She's the skank. Got knocked up, can't wear those midriff shirts anymore, you know, cause of the stomach," He defended, making a rounded stomach motion with his hands.

"That guy on the subway earlier obviously didn't get the memo," Dave joked, laughing at himself, which Mindy couldn't help but smirk at as well.

"Well I only have to wear this for a couple of hours, thank god," Mindy responded, still rather upset that she had to come back and practically expose herself in front of Dave and Marty.

"Well it's not that bad. Besides, we've already seen you in your undies, can't get more naked than that without there being alcohol involved, am I right?" Marty joked, reaching for a high five from Dave, who just shot him a dirty look.

Mindy's cheeks went bright red, when she remembered that her first impression on Dave's friends had her climbing on top of him in her underwear. She'd wished she could go back and do something else rather than the flying armbar. Despite it's badass appearance and flawless record for getting results (Mother Russia excluded), stripping down to her underwear had probably been a bad move. She could have just punched him in the stomach and then tripped him on the way down, the typical Half Python move.

And despite Dave's dirty look thrown Marty's way, he was now thinking back on the moment when Mindy had stripped down to her underwear and climbed on top of him. He remembered the feeling of her soft but strong thighs wrapping around his neck, and realized for the first time how physically close his face had been to her ass as well as her cunt.

He also realized that combined with her now in the crop top, he had now seen most of her naked, other than what was under her bra and underwear. He felt his blood start to rush downward at these thoughts and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to think of something else, anything else.

Marty would never, ever, let him live it down if he got a rager right after Mindy had come into the room in skin tight leggings and a crop top. And he was pretty sure Mindy wouldn't be too happy either, since she would know her presence and appearance would be the culprit for said raging boner. Although in Dave's opinion, girls should feel flattered if something like that happened.

But either way, Dave started paying way more attention to the football game than necessary, even their commercials, which were all for Black Friday deals. And when the game had ended and Mindy's clothes had still not returned he switched to the news, hoping for anything about Chris D'Amico or any other strange happenings around town that could be attributed to his cause. But most of the news was happy and lighthearted for the holiday.

But try as Dave could, he couldn't help but steal glances at Mindy sitting beside him. She was very quiet, but that wasn't something he noticed. Instead he kept looking at her toned stomach and wishing and hoping she'd have a reason to stand up soon, so he could get a better look at her ass. Dave of course berated himself for these thoughts, telling himself: '_She's only turned sixteen'_ and '_You're so sick for thinking these things'_ over and over again in his head.

Mindy on the other hand was thinking about how much she wanted her jeans and sweater back, and how she was ready to go home. She could pack in an hour or two of recon and finish the night off with some self training, but only if they left in the next hour. She wasn't ungrateful for her first traditional Thanksgiving, on the contrary she rather enjoyed it and hoped to do it again next hear. But she had to stay focused on the mission at hand, and not let holidays or stained clothes get in her way.

Honestly the damn sweater and pants weren't irreplaceable, she could just buy another pair. It wasn't like she was hurting for money considering she was now reunited with all of her three million dollars (the million of which she'd left with Dave hadn't been touched, the reason she found out was that he hadn't known where it was or that she'd even left it for him, the bonehead) and could afford to buy another $30 pair of jeans and pick up a sweater the next time she went out for a grocery run.

.

.

.

After finally getting her clothes back and putting them back on, miraculously stain free, she, Dave, and Marty said their goodbyes after taking several take home containers with them filled with leftovers, and they took the cab ride back to safe house C to drop Marty off and wish any of the others there a happy Thanksgiving before heading home.

But once they got there, Dave blabbed away with Brad and Miranda so Mindy was stuck waiting on him. So she took the opportunity to do the research she'd been planning on doing. She'd changed though; into a pair of workout clothes she'd had here, and pulled the hood of the sweater up, to block out the noise and seclude herself more.

She'd been at it for almost an hour with still no results. Chris D'Amico had obviously learned his lesson and had gotten his shit together this time (although that was rather apparent to Mindy since she learned he'd successfully bombed the fucking JFK airport) so he wasn't leaving any breadcrumbs. Even the police servers she'd hacked into were turning up nothing on this fucker. The only things it did turn up was the names of cops on the vigilante task force which was created to locate and arrest any vigilantes or masked super people, both hero and villain.

She was surprised to see Marcus' name on the list, but then remembered what he'd told her about being on the team trying to locate her and also remembered that he was probably put there on purpose by the chief to lead them to her.

Mindy sighed and rubbed her temples, her eyes strained from staring at the bright computer screen so long. She glanced over at the group chatting away as if there wasn't a crazed psycho killer on the loose and rolled her eyes. She then turned the other way and noticed for the first time that Ina had been in the apartment the whole time. She was curled up in the corner with a book, and was scribbling notes every so often on a notepad beside her.

Mindy watched Ina for a few minutes before she noticed that Mindy had been watching her, Ina had looked up every so often to grimace at the group on the other end of the safe house, who were clearly disrupting her. Ina and Mindy held each other's gaze, neither faltering, before Marty's voice rang out loud and clear.

"No! I swear to god there are sushi places that put the food on a naked chick's body and feed it to you like that. She just lays down on the fucking table ass naked and you're supposed to eat the sushi off her tits and bush!" He exclaimed, to a chorus of groans of disgust and disbelief.

Ina glanced over in Marty's direction, but Mindy didn't, she just rolled her eyes and sighed again. Ina looked back at Mindy and finally Mindy spoke to her.

"You hate living here, don't you?" Mindy asked her.

"Well, no…" Ina trailed off, before looking back at Marty and Co. her face falling from the mock contentment it had tried to convince Mindy with.

"You know, you could stay in safe house A with Dave and Me if you wanted. It's much more quiet and…" Mindy trailed off, looking back at the friends and grimacing before adding, "Less gross."

Ina smiled, "You mean it? You really want me to stay there with you?" She asked Mindy for clarification. She knew from speaking with Dave that Mindy was a girl who liked her privacy so this had to be a big step for her.

"Yeah, we'll just kick Dave onto the pull-out sofa and you'll get your own bed and room and everything." Mindy said smirking.

"Well I don't want to displace anyone," Ina responded, guiltily as she was sincerely hoping to leave safe house C and be as far away from Brad and Marty as possible. They may have been Dave's friends, but they were very different from the Dave she had grown to know through therapy. Although she knew there was a guy side to Dave, she wasn't naïve that way, but she didn't know just how bad his friends were, especially while in the presence of a woman.

"Fuck Dave. He's making you stay here in…" Mindy sniffed the air and crinkled her nose in disgust before continuing, "Feet city with its mayor, Mr. Sleaze," She said, looking over at Marty.

Ina pursed her lips to stop from laughing. "Well then I think I will take you up on your offer. I'm not exactly pleased with what the mayor is doing to the city." Ina retorted, making Mindy smile when she realized Ina was not only playing along, but also quipping back with sarcasm, Mindy's favorite form of communication. Well, other than cursing.

"Well let's get your stuff together then. I'm ready to get home for a good training session," Mindy said, standing up.

Ina followed suit and walked into the bedroom she had been sharing with Miranda. Mindy followed her into the room and together they packed up her belongings. They had everything in three suitcases and walked into the middle room, catching the attention of Dave.

"What's going on? Ina? I don't think it's safe for you to leave the safe house and go home. We haven't even been able to find any information on Chris or what his plans are," Dave said, worried after seeing Ina standing with her suitcases around her.

"Damn! Relax Chatty Cathy. I just told her she could move in with us in safe house A, since the company here is… Well, less than optimal," Mindy responded, looking Marty's way and smiling while raising her eyebrows, calling him out. Marty responded by making a face of disbelief and offense.

"Oh. Okay. Are you leaving now?" Dave asked as a click from the door was heard and everyone looked at the door, not sure who would be at the door. Mindy dropped the suitcases and somersaulted backwards to a pair of knives hanging on the wall, gripping them in her hands, ready to assault whoever dared break into her fortress.

The door opened up to reveal Todd. Which relaxed everyone except Mindy. Dave and the others were smiling, and Dave had stepped forward to greet his friend. Mindy on the other hand, somersaulted forward this time, jumping over the couch that the group had been crowded around and landed in front of Todd, jutting the edge of her blades up to Todd's neck.

Todd's eyes went wide and he held up his hands in defeat. "What the hell Mindy? It's just Todd," Dave said, stepping up beside Mindy and trying to push her away.

"I know exactly who he is," Mindy responded, narrowing her eyes and staring into Todd's.

Todd started smiling, and started getting excited as he realized just who it was that was assaulting him. But then Mindy pushed the knife closer against his neck and Todd felt a sharp pain. "Ow!" He exclaimed.

Mindy watched as a tiny bit of blood seeped out under her knife, knowing she'd just barely broke the skin, she smiled deviously.

"Mindy! Stop! You're going to kill him!" Dave said, starting to panic.

"So riddle me this, fuck face. Do you have shit for brains or am I going to have to slit your throat with these blades?" Mindy asked menacingly, ignoring Dave.

"Uh… What?" Todd responded, looking to Dave for help or a hint.

Mindy rolled her eyes slowly, "You're the one that told on Dave. And you're here in my home. I'm not going to have to kill you to keep my secrets safe am I?" Mindy asked in her typical Hit Girl taunting fashion.

"Um, no. Definitely not." Todd replied vigorously.

Mindy narrowed her eyes at him before releasing the blades from his throat and flipping them closed. "Good, cause I'm not in the mood to clean up a blood bath tonight. I've got better things to do with my time," Mindy retorted, abruptly turning around and walking back to replace her blades.

She then picked up Ina's luggage and walked up next to Dave, who was inspecting Todd's neck to make sure the damage wasn't serious. "Ina and I are heading out. You've been relocated to the couch." She smiled, "Come back when you're done socializing and ready to get back to work." She turned and walked over to the door but stopped before turning the knob. "By the way everyone, we've got training at 6:30 sharp. See you all in the A.M." She left the groaning group with Ina trailing her, now more nervous about moving in with the strange and violent girl she knew so little about.

.

.

.

Ina had unpacked her things and was sitting in the living room outside the training room. She had her psychology book on personality types and thought processes. She'd suddenly become very interested in personality and why people made the choices they did in their lives.

She attributed it to Dave of course. Logically speaking, it was insane for a person to put on a spandex costume and mask and go out to take down murderers, thieves, and criminals of all sorts. But he did it, and others are now doing it. And it works for him, somehow.

She secretly wished she could do some kind of study or publish some sort of journal about superheroes and their psychological processes. But of course that would be out of the question considering doctor patient confidentiality not to mention possibly uncovering their secret identities.

_Maybe someday…_ She thought to herself. She was distracted from her reading by the grunting noises coming from the open door to the training room. She rose from her seat and peered in to see Mindy doing flips and acrobatics across the floor before flinging several knives in succession onto a target on the wall.

Despite hitting her target with expert accuracy, Mindy didn't look happy. Ina wondered if it had to do with her physical performance or if was some other internal issue.

In all honesty, Ina was just itching to talk with Mindy since out of all the superheroes she was the one with the most interesting back-story and she was certainly different from the others, who had joined out of interest and pleasure. She was violent, crude, and took the job very seriously.

Ina had worried for Marty after they'd returned from their training session, since he was looking rather pale and hardly ate anything that night for dinner. The others had remarked on how hard she'd pushed them and how frightening she could be. Plus her altercation with poor Todd just hours earlier had cemented Mindy's intensity and seriousness about the life and career of a superhero in everyone's mind, including Ina's.

She watched Mindy retrieve her knives and tuck them back into a holster around her thigh before Mindy had noticed Ina's interest. Ina smiled and turned back to her seat and went to sit down before she was stopped by Mindy's voice calling out to her.

"So Dave thinks you're the shit or whatever," Mindy said, catching Ina's attention and causing her to turn back to the teen.

Ina wasn't sure what to respond to that so she just shrugged her shoulders and came into the training room, leaning up against the wall.

"I guess you've really helped him with his dad," Mindy added, after the silent response from Ina.

"Well, I like to think he's in a much better place. Of course he only got there after telling me he was Kick Ass," Ina responded.

Mindy held one of the knives in her hand, rubbing the pad of her thumb over the blade. She didn't look up while talking. "Do you think Kick Ass defines him?" Mindy asked her.

Ina was surprised Mindy had asked that, it was something Ina had wrestled with herself. She wasn't sure if Kick Ass was who Dave was or if Dave made Kick Ass like himself. "Well, I'm not sure. I think Dave brings something of himself to that personality. He's a protector, in his first video he was protecting a man, so I think he defines who Kick Ass is not the other way around."

Mindy looked up at Ina, "No. I mean, do you think it's all he is anymore. Like there's nothing left of him. He's just Kick Ass. He's not really Dave. Kick Ass defines who he is," Mindy explained.

Ina rose her eyebrows in realization. "Oh I see." She paused to think about it before answering, "I think he's made it that way. He feels alone, so he's centered his life around it."

"Do you think there's a chance that could change?" Mindy asked her, biting her lip.

Ina noticed the slight lip bite and realized Mindy wasn't asking just out of concern for her friend. "There's always the possibility of change. A person just has to commit to it." Ina replied.

Mindy sighed and plopped down on the mat she'd been tumbling on. She felt like her life was at a crossroads right now. She wasn't sure what path to take, which would make her happy, which was the right one to take?

Ina came up and sat down next to Mindy seeing that her help was needed. Once she sat down beside Mindy, the teen girl spilled her guts.

"I just… I miss it. I miss fucking Podunk Cooper Texas. I miss my friends and I miss living with a family. People that care about me and want me to succeed in life, and not just in combat," Mindy said.

Ina nodded along with Mindy's narrative, "I don't know much about your story, but it's perfectly normal to miss the things you get used to. The things that make you feel good," She responded.

Mindy looked up at Ina and searched her for the answers. "I miss everything. I miss my dad, I miss being with Kim and Kaylee, I miss Nick, I miss kicking bad guy ass, I miss Dave."

Ina was confused; she wasn't sure what Mindy meant by missing Dave, since he was living in the same house as her.

"I miss one when with the other, and I just don't know what to do. I even fucking miss that dick head Patrick. I don't understand. Are people every truly happy or do we just make the best of what we have?" Mindy rambled.

"Both, I think. We find a balance in life. There is no one person who has everything they want. Not even Bill Gates has everything he wants. But there are genuinely happy people in this world. Somehow we find the will to focus on the good things and create a balance that works for us," Ina answered. "What moment in your life were you the happiest?" She asked Mindy, trying to help her discover where to start in balancing her life.

Mindy sat and pondered it for a while. There were certainly plenty of moments when she was happy. She thought back to when she'd met her father for the first time and how happy she was that he'd been loving and looked at her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. She even noticed the few tears brimming in his eyes.

She also thought to when Dave had helped her take down the D'Amicos when he could have tried to run away from her and get the police involved. Instead he stuck around to help her finish her father's mission, and even saved her life twice that night. She remembered feeling relief and the slight edge of happiness that someone was helping her, having a real friend for the first time.

She then thought to when she'd sat at the lunch table with Kim and Kaylee and the other girls after breaking up with Patrick and how supportive they were, especially Kim, despite the ordeal she was going through she pushed her own feelings aside to help Mindy when she was in need.

A series of kills flashed through her head, the quick swipe of the punk at Rasul's when she'd cut his leg clean off, the man in the alleyway when she'd been training Dave and she'd cut his hand off, pairing it with the perfect one-liner, and of course her defeat of Mother Russia, turning her into a pin cushion and finally vanquishing a worthy foe.

Mindy wasn't sure which memory to choose. But then it came to her. "The moment when Dave and I watched the sun rise over Manhattan after killing the D'Amicos. Knowing that it was over and that I had an ally, a… Friend. That I had… Dave,' Mindy said slowly.

Ina smiled, "What makes it so special?"

Mindy paused, "Because I wasn't alone," She replied.

"So Dave is very important to you?" Ina asked her.

"Yes. He is," Mindy answered, turning to look at Ina. "And he's taught me things too. I didn't know he could. It's not the skills or the knowledge that makes you great…" Mindy trailed off, staring at the wall behind Ina before snapping up to meet her gaze. "You don't need a mask, or a cape, or a secret identity to be a hero. You just need the heart of one."

Ina raised her eyebrows, waiting for Mindy to come to her own answer to her problems.

"Is that my… Balance?" Mindy asked her, unsure.

"Only you know what your balance is. I can't tell you that. But I think you're probably on the right track," Ina responded.

Mindy looked back down at the knife in her hand and suddenly threw it across the room at the target, hitting the bulls-eye head on. "But how do I combine Hit Girl with heart?"

"I think that's the journey you have to take. Discovering that for yourself," Ina told her, smiling. She rose up from the floor slowly and gingerly, not a spry as she once was. Mindy stayed on the floor and chewed on the inside of her lip, mulling it over. "Well it's getting late and I've got to meet with patients tomorrow." She paused and looked at Mindy. "You'll find it out. I can tell, you're a smart girl," She reassured her before retiring to her new room for the night.

* * *

Oh. My. God. you guys. This is the longest chapter on the planet! At lease I feel that way. I'm pretty darn sure it's the longest chapter i've ever written. It's 16 word document pages long and it's one of the reasons I've taken so long to update. I've also taken so long because I've been really busy.

Anyway, now that I got that out of my system... I'm pretty happy with how the chapter turned out. It's got heartfelt moments, budding romance moments, funny moments, and a tiny bit of action. So far it's my favorite chapter :D

Also thank you guys so so much for all your reviews, faves, and follows! I love and cherish all of them and I always reply to your review if you leave one where I can reply :) But Also love your anonymous reviews (Whoever you are that hates John Rocker, you're cracking me up :D)

So I guess now is the time where y'all leave me some reviews and make my day happy! ;)


End file.
